The home secretary has revealed the government is seeking deals with North African countries to enable terrorist suspects held in Belmarsh prison to be deported.

In an interview on Wednesday Charles Clarke said he was seeking to find a solution to the problem that would not result in the detainees being tortured or sentenced to death in their home countries.

The government has three more weeks to respond to a law lords ruling that the indefinite detention of 12 suspects without trial is illegal.

The men are being held under the Terrorism Act brought in after the September 11 attacks on the US and the issue is being seen as the first big test of Clarke's tenure at the Home Office.

He said that both he and Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, are in favour of a treaty that would see the suspects returned with guarantees over their treatment.

"I think we should be prosecuting much more energetically our ability to deport the individuals concerned to the countries from which they come, in all these particular cases from North Africa," he told the Times.

"We are actively pursuing that in collaboration with the foreign secretary in a very positive way."

Liberalism

In his first newspaper interview since succeeding David Blunkett in the job in December, Clarke resisted characterisation that he is more of a liberal than his predecessor.

"I am not an instinctive liberal," he said. "I am instinctively much more hardline on a lot of issues about civil liberties than others.

"It depends what you mean by liberal. If liberal is the same as being a card-carrying member of the Bar Council I am not.

"But if liberal is trying to promote a tolerant society, I hope I am. I am not a civil libertarian in general."

"I think the courts and the legal system do not always focus, as they should, on the social issues which should be addressed," he added.

On changes to the licensing laws, set to come into force in November, the home secretary said pubs and clubs whose customers indulge in alcohol-fuelled yobbish behaviour should pay for extra police.

Despite reports of rifts between their departments, he said he working closely with culture secretary Tessa Jowell on whether to impose a cash levy either on geographical areas or on the nature of the drinking establishment.

"If you take the drink issue, I am not in favour of letting the market run and seeing what happens," Clarke said.

"I am in favour of state intervention and to see how we can get to a better way of living.

"The fact is that there is a multibillion-pound industry where there are social effects of what they do. Yes, they contribute to taxation. But it is important to work with the industry and they with us to make sure the worst effects of this are tackled."