The EU is to hold an emergency summit on Friday to discuss Europe's response to last Tuesday's terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.

The council of national leaders and foreign ministers is expected just one day after the EU's justice ministers hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss Europe-wide measures to clamp down on terrorism.

Ahead of the summit, EU president and Belgian prime minister, Guy Verhofstadt, will tour the Europe's capitals to garner support for a coherent international response to the US atrocities.

The idea for the top-level meeting is said to come from the German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and follows pledges by the EU and NATO to support the US in is "21st century war" against terrorists.

On Wednesday, Germany's Bundestag is set to debate in special session possible military involovement in a US-led strikes.

The following day, the home secretary David Blunkett meets with his European counterparts to discuss EU-wide measures to fight terrorism at a national level.

Calling the meeting, Belgium's justice minister Belgian justice minister, Marc Verwilghen, said that "every measure" needed to be taken to bring terrorists to justice and called for a new EU legal framework to combat terrorists.

"Every measure must now be taken to hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice. We also need to develop an effective legislative framework for prosecuting terrorist acts. The European treaty of 1977 must certainly be re-examined in the council of the European Union in light of the resurgence of terrorist activity," he said.

The home affairs ministers are expected to discuss commission directives "to accelerate and improve the fight against terrorist acts within the European Union". The goal - unlikely to be acheived in one session - will be the creation of a "European platform against terrorism" that will "substitute for the current national legislations".

These proposals will include the adoption of a common definition of terrorism, a European arrest warrant, streamlined extradition procedures and tougher sanctions. Currently, only five countries out of the EU's 15 member states have specific anti-terrorist legislation - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Moves to cut the loopholes between the various national legislation have been welcomed by the UK.

"The UK fully supports the decision of the presidency to call a special meeting of the council of justice and home affairs ministers to discuss the EU's response to terrorist attacks in New York. The UK is pushing for urgent agreement on a number of measures to help the EU step up the fight against global terrorism. In particular we want to see agreement to fast track extradition backed by an EU arrest warrant," said a Home Office spokesman.

The meetings follow controversial US proposals to repeal 25-year-old laws barring America's involvement in overseas acts of assassination and to give the FBI a freer hand in the surveillance of terror suspects.

The US state department is set to send wide-ranging plans for anti-terrorist measures - including more power to conduct wiretaps, detain foreigners and track money-laundering cases - to Capitol Hill later this week.

"It's clear to me that we need to upgrade and strengthen a number of laws in the United States. There are areas of our laws and procedures which give us better tools against organized crime, against illegal gambling, for example, than we have against terrorists. We need to make sure that we provide the maximum capacity against terrorists in the United States," said US attorney general John Ashcroft.

The American proposals come amid calls by Westminster MPs for the introduction of ID cards, action to freeze the bank accounts of suspected Bin Laden supporters and a crackdown on militant Islamic groups in Britain.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, told a recalled House of Commons on Friday that while civil liberties were a vital part of the democratic world. "The most basics liberty of all is the right of the ordinary citizen to go about their business free from fear or terror," he said.