The home secretary has launched a legal challenge to the High Court's ruling against the withdrawal of benefits from refugees.

The attorney general will on Monday go to the Appeal Court on David Blunkett's behalf to have the ruling overturned.

The appeal follows a ruling in a test case of six asylum seekers who were denied benefits and social services support because they failed to claim asylum as soon as they landed in Britain.Mr Justice Collins incurred the wrath of the home secretary by claiming the Home Office's new rules were in breach of human rights legislation.

"Parliament can surely not have intended that genuine refugees should be faced with the bleak alternatives of returning to persecution (itself a breach of the refugee convention) or of destitution," Collins concluded.

Blunkett is under pressure to get results after releasing figures last week that showed for the first time the number of asylum seekers had topped 100,000 - a figure which he described as "unacceptable".

He has vowed to meet a pledge by the prime minister to halve the number of claims and sees the ruling by the court as a blow to his department's strategy to beat the problem.

The home secretary accused the judge of subverting the will of parliament and claimed the policy was "perfectly reasonable and fair".

"I am personally fed up with having to deal with a situation where parliament debates issues and the judges then overturn them. We were aware of the circumstances, we did mean what we said and, on behalf of the British people, we are going to implement it," he warned.

It is not the first time that Blunkett has taken on court verdicts against his tough asylum law. Last year he slammed a judgement that he was wrong to remove the Ahmadi family who were evicted from a mosque and deported to Germany.The Home Office said its new legal challenge was vital if the government was to end the rise of "bogus asylum seekers".

"This measure is an important part of our asylum reform programme which is dealing with widespread abuse of the system and reducing unfounded claims. It is simple common sense that asylum seekers should lodge their claim as soon as they arrive if they expect support from the government," it said.

"The law that people should claim asylum as soon as is reasonably practicable, and that we cannot provide support unless they do, still stands. We must continue to be able to operate a robust policy and people who try to abuse our asylum system will not find us a soft touch."