The home and foreign secretaries yesterday defended the "shoot-to-kill" policy adopted by police for dealing with suspected suicide bombers, despite expressing deep regret at the death of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes.
Charles Clarke and Jack Straw echoed the apology from the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Sir Ian Blair, but said it was vital officers could deal effectively with the threat of suicide attacks.
Their comments came as Mr Clarke bowed to pressure and postponed his summer holiday to stay in London.
He will now attend tomorrow's anti-terrorism summit at No 10, chaired by Tony Blair and attended by the opposition leaders and home affairs spokesmen.
A Downing Street spokeswoman said the government wanted to brief opposition parties on its meetings with Muslim community leaders and the police and to discuss what new steps might be necessary.
Yesterday Mr Clarke said he had nothing but praise and admiration for the police. He denied the police had a shoot-to-kill policy, although Sir Ian has called it a policy of "shoot to kill in order to protect".
Mr Straw, who had apologised to the Brazilian government over the death, told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "We have to ensure that clear rules are operated but we also, tragically, have to ensure that the police do have effective discretion to deal with what could be terrorist suicide outrages about to take place."
He said the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings underlined the indiscriminate and global nature of the threat, backing a call by the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, for an international anti-terrorism summit. The foreign secretary will today meet Celso Amorim, his Brazilian counterpart .
"We have of course expressed in the past our total solidarity in the combat against terrorism but we understand also that in combating terrorism one should exercise the necessary caution not to take away innocent lives," Mr Amorim told the programme.
Other MPs stressed the police were acting in difficult circumstances, but said it was important people were fully informed about the inquiry.
Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and formerly a civil liberties lawyer, praised Sir Ian for apologising so promptly but added: "There is clearly unease and tension about what has happened. People, especially visible Muslims, are anxious."
Mr Khan also praised Mr Clarke for promising to consult the Muslim community over new anti-terror laws.
Last week the Tories and Liberal Democrats agreed to back the laws, to be introduced in parliament this autumn. The renewal of controversial control orders has been delayed until the new year and the home secretary will clarify a new offence of "indirect incitement to terrorism".
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, criticised chief police officers for demanding sweeping new powers in new anti-terror legislation.
"It is completely inappropriate for senior police to give out a shopping list."
She added: "It is the police's role to enforce the law not to seek to make it."
The Association of Chief Police Officers wants 11 legal changes , including the right to detain a suspect for up to three months without charge instead of the current 14 days.
Ms Chakrabarti described that proposal as the "most alarming".
Yesterday Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, told Sky's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme that Britain had to look at how to deport or exclude extremists.