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SECURING POTENTIAL TARGETS: British airports, train stations and shopping malls will be given bomb defences under the new security plan. This follows failed car bomb attacks at the Glasgow airport and London's West End. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON - BRITISH airports, train stations and shopping malls will get new defences against car bombs following a major security review, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament yesterday.
Under the plan, hundreds of transport terminals, power plants and shopping malls will also upgrade their protection against the threat of bombings.
The measures include putting in new barriers, vehicle exclusion zones and making buildings blast resistant.
'In the most sensitive locations, for example some large rail stations, and while doing everything to avoid inconvenience to passengers, we are planning additional screening of baggage and passenger searches,' Mr Brown said.
Increasing 'physical protection against possible vehicle bomb attacks' was a priority, he said.
'This will include, where judged necessary, improved security at railway stations - focusing first on those of our 250 busiest stations most at risk - and at airport terminals, ports and over 100 sensitive installations.'
He said that Britain's one-bag limit on airline hand baggage would be 'progressively lifted' as airports improved security.
The Prime Minister also announced tougher sentencing measures against terrorists and the introduction of biometric visas from next year, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Mr Brown said a review led by Terrorism Minister Alan West, former head of the navy, had found no lapses in safety at around 1,000 public venues reviewed, but recommended extra protection against car bombs.
Mr West's study highlighted a resurgent threat from such bombs - a tactic once used by Irish Republican terrorists and now adopted by Islamic extremist groups.
The review, ordered by Mr Brown, was conducted following failed car bomb attacks in London's West End entertainment district and the Glasgow airport earlier this year.
Mr Brown also set out details in Parliament of a new unified border force and proposals for the electronic screening of all passengers.
There will also be 160 counter-terrorism advisers provided to train staff at crowded places such as shopping centres to identify threats, he said.
In addition, architects and designers would be urged to include security measures in their designs of new buildings.
'The design in the past of certain buildings and places does not make it easy to counter terrorist attacks,' Mr West told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
'If a bomb goes off, we have built into them the shrapnel that will kill people.'
Apart from new physical security measures, Mr Brown also outlined in Parliament a broad swathe of measures to prevent the spread of extremist ideology in the country's schools, universities, mosques, youth clubs and prisons, as well as on the Internet, said a BBC News report.
Among these are moves to prevent young Muslims from being radicalised, including help to strengthen the leadership of mosques. But Mr Brown also insisted the government is sensitive to the concerns of the Islamic community.
Internet and technology companies will also be asked to help stop terrorist propaganda being distributed online, he said.
Mr Brown urged shared values in the community, saying that it was 'a generational challenge', reported the Guardian.
ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
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