An influential Commons committee has blasted "fundamentally misconceived" government proposals on House of Lords reform and called for a 60 per cent elected second chamber.

MPs on the public administration select committee attacked the government's "zero sum game" on reform and argued that ministers should instead focus on increasing "the effectiveness of both chambers in holding the government to account for its actions and policies''.

"Reform is not a zero-sum game in which advances for one chamber are inevitably threats to the other," said the committee

Arguing that the government is "fundamentally misconceived...in its oft-repeated determination to ensure the pre-eminence of the House of Commons" the report backs a 60 per cent elected majority in a reformed Lords - three times the number suggested by the government, but less than the 80 per cent called for by the Tories and Lib Dems.

And against a background of Westminster revolt against the reform blueprint, the committee chairman, Dr Tony Wright, told ministers that progress could be made "if there is the will to do so".

"We have produced a report that is unanimous, agreed by members of all three main parties and without having to take a single vote. If the committee can do this, then so should the Commons as a whole be able to," he said.

"We believe that our report offers a coherent package of proposals that reflects the wishes of the Commons and the country, providing the basis for a more legitimate and effective second chamber and for a strengthening of parliament as a whole."

The report will be seized upon by cabinet opponents of the current plan - drawn up by a cabinet committee headed by the lord chancellor Derry Irvine and said to be opposed by Common leader Robin Cook and others - and will fuel moves towards a compromise along the lines recommended by the select committee.

"There are two prospects. One is that the government will proceed on the basis of proposals that will not win the support of the House of Commons, and an almighty mess will follow," said Wright.

"Or, they may decide to drop the whole thing and say it is all very complicated, we cannot possibly agree, it's a distraction from public services and we will come back to it one day. We think either of those development would be extremely serious and we would be losing a major historic opportunity to produce a second chamber that could have a seriously useful role in our political system.''

Speaking in the Commons, Robin Cook expressed his "welcome of the clear signal" given by the report that consensus on reform could be reached.

"It has been reached on the basis of unanimity and show that it is possible to find a centre of gravity for reform," he told MPs during Thursday's business statement.

The select committee notes that "had we started with a clean slate, we might well have come to a different conclusion" but backs a more partial compromise reform in the interests of a "stronger parliament".

"Indeed, the majority preference on the committee would have been for a wholly elected and much smaller second chamber. However we all share a desire for a stronger and more effective parliament, and we see early and credible reform of the second chamber as an essential part of that," said the report.

Unlike the government, which has indicated that the reforms signal a "final stage" of change, the select committee calls for a review after elected peers become the majority in the second chamber.

Under the MPs' plan, elected members would enter the chamber in two stages with half - 30 per cent - of the total membership arriving at the next general election and the other half elected in the election following.

The committee's proposals serve notice on the 500 plus life peers with the proposal that the second chamber be slashed by 2010 from its current 750-plus seats to 360.

Existing life peers and all law lords and bishops will lose their seat in the house by right and be forced to seek nomination or election if they wish to return.

Life peers wishing to remain in the Lords beyond the next general election would have to seek votes from their colleagues - in a ballot similar to that which culled the hereditary peers in 1999.

Research by constitutional campaigners, Charter 88, reveals that back-bench Labour life peers will not go quietly into the night, with most backing more status quo options and opposing an elected majority of in a reformed second chamber.

Sixty six per cent want less than 50 per cent of members to be elected, 30 per cent want half or more to be elected. And four per cent oppose a hybrid chamber, supporting a totally elected or 100 appointed option.

"It is not surprising perhaps that those who have risen by the present system see less wrong with it than those who are elected representatives," points out C88 director, Chris Lawrence-Pietroni.

MPs rejected government arguments that appointed Lords members would safeguard independence and expertise, insisting that without democratic legitimacy the second chamber would not be effective in holding the government to account.

"There is ample evidence that, for all its expertise and experience, it does not have enough confidence in its own legitimacy," said the MPs.

"We pay particular attention to the need for both chambers to work more effectively together. We want a second chamber that has enough institutional legitimacy to ensure that it is taken seriously, and enough independence and expertise among its membership to ensure that it is worth taking seriously."