David Cameron sets out new anti-terror laws

Police will get new powers to confiscate the passports of British jihadists fighting in Syria and prevent them from returning to the UK, David Cameron has told MPs.

He said that British citizens who had declared their allegiance to Islamic State would not be allowed to return home, the BBC reports.

The Conservatives and their Lib Dem coalition partners had been locked in talks over the new anti-terror laws, with the two parties at odds over how best to tackle the threat. The terror alert level was raised from "substantial" to "severe" on Friday.

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The Lib Dems have questioned the legality of travel bans preventing British citizens re-entering the country, suggesting that the proposed measures might be a violation of civil rights.

Former Lib Dem party leader Sir Menzies Campbell said rendering citizens stateless by withdrawing their passports is illegal under international law.

The Lib Dems said that they would only agree to measures that had been adopted "calmly, on the basis of evidence and that maintained the liberty of British citizens," the BBC reports.

Campbell told The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4 that unless the prime minister is careful, new anti-terror legislation may turn out to be illegal: "To render citizens stateless is regarded as illegal in international law. To render them stateless temporarily, which seems to me to be the purpose of what has been proposed, can also be described as illegal. At the very least it is the kind of question that would be tested here in our own courts and perhaps also in the European court of human rights."

Nick Clegg and David Cameron were keen to underline that their continued discussions over the legislation do not constitute a row because "they both respect each other's record in speaking up on civil rights," The Guardian says.

Both party leaders agree that Britain needs to find ways to address the potential threats posed by the estimated 500 British citizens who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State.

The discussions come after a stark warning from the king of Saudi Arabia, who said that an attack against Europe by terror groups could happen in the next month unless they were confronted with "power and speed".