The Conservatives have urged the Foreign Office not to turn Britain's embassies into fortresses.

Following the two terrorist attacks in Turkey, the party urged officials not to surrender to give in to terrorist "blackmail" by restricting public access to its overseas buildings.

The party's shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram called on Sunday for a balance to be struck between protecting staff and turning embassies into no-go zones.

"What we have got to do is make sure they are properly secure and that they are hard targets rather than soft targets," Ancram told the BBC.

"A consulate has got to be available to the people in the country to be able to go to easily and so the balance has to be being a hard target rather than a soft target but not being a fortress.''"This is a fight against a form of blackmail. Terrorism isn't just about the act of violence. It's much more about the attempt to create fear so that people change their lifestyles and do things differently," he said.

His comments followed the two terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Turkey which left 27 dead and 450 injured.

Ancram also urged for a greater sharing of intelligence between countries in the fight against terrorism.

"I hope the lesson of the terrible thing that happened in Istanbul this week will generate more enthusiasm for that right across the international community,'' he said.

He also questioned whether security had been strong enough given that the consul targeted in the bombing had suffered a previous attack.

"It was obviously a target. What we need to know now is whether sufficient security measures were taken to make it a hard target rather than a soft target, because that is the key to this," Ancram said.