Charles Clarke has revealed that the friends and relatives of the four British citizens freed from Guantanamo Bay this week may also undergo sweeping monitoring by the police.

Interviewed in the Telegraph, the home secretary said that those sharing an address with any of the four could be denied access to the telephone or internet and have to undergo body searches.

Clarke said: "I accept that an individual is different to a family but where there is an individual deemed to be a threat on security grounds we need the powers to stop that person engaging in terrorism."

Nine terrorist suspects being held without charge in British jails may also be freed shortly but will be under house-arrest conditions.

Lawyers representing the nine will be in court on Monday to seek their release.

Meanwhile, George Churchill-Coleman, who was in charge Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has warned that Clarke is turning Britain into a "police state".