Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said that plans to extend terror detention to 42 days will be dropped from the Counter-Terrorism Bill.

It follows a heavy defeat for the government in the House of Lords, which threw out the plan by 309 votes to 118.

Ms Smith said instead the measure would be in a separate piece of legislation to be brought to Parliament if needed.

The Tories said the new legislation was "bizarre", the Lib Dems said Ms Smith was in "humiliating retreat".

The government's plan to extend the period police can hold terrorist suspects before charging them squeezed through the Commons in June by just nine votes.

'Biggest defeat'

Earlier on Monday it was defeated by a majority of 191 votes in the Lords, described by the Conservative former shadow home secretary David Davis as "the biggest defeat in the Lords in living memory".