The government has refused to rule out using the Parliament Act to impose a ban on hunting with hounds in England and Wales.

Legislation, which last week ran out of time in the House of Lords, could now make a comeback in the next session.

On Monday Downing Street left open the possibility of imposing the will of MPs on the upper house.

"Unfortunately given the amount of time that the Lords have spent on this the bill was unable to get passed the committee stage let alone get to report, let alone ping pong between the Houses," said a spokesman for the prime minister.

"The government has to reflect on that. It has to consider what to do next and how to take things forward. So in due course we will set out how we plan to proceed."

Number 10 added that the government "is obviously keen to get its business" onto the statute book.

"This was a government bill. The political realities were obviously that that wasn't possible," added the spokesman.

"Now we have to look hard at those, reflect on that and consider the way forward. I don't think it is particularly helpful to start going into the business of setting out options."

Downing Street would not say whether a decision to use the Parliament Act had already been taken by senior ministers.

The intervention followed claims that the Commons leader Peter Hain had already signalled the government's determination to over-rule the Lords.

"I think what Peter Hain was saying [is that] there is a constitutional principle that the Commons has primacy over the Lords when it comes to legislation," said the spokesman.

"In terms of this bill, it hasn't been possible to get it through for reasons which are well known and obviously we have to look carefully at that and work out a way forward."

Under parliamentary rules the government could reintroduce the legislation in the next session and then use the Parliament Act to impose its will on peers.

That would then lead to bitter exchanges between the government and pro-hunt groups - who have pledged to defy the ban through a programme of mass civil disobedience.