Liberal Democrat MP Dr Jenny Tonge has been asked to step down from the frontbench after expressing sympathy with Palestinian suicide bombers.

Party leader Charles Kennedy asked the Richmond Park MP to quit after she told a pro-Palestinian rally on Thursday that she understood what motivated the attacks against Israelis.

"I think if I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself," the Lib Dem spokeswoman on children's issues said.

On Friday Kennedy moved to dismiss the MP having come under pressure from Labour and Conservative MPs and the Israeli ambassador to Britain.

"Her recent remarks about suicide bombers are completely unacceptable," he said.

"They are not compatible with Liberal Democrat party policies and principles.

"There can be no justification, under any circumstances for taking innocent lives through terrorism.

"I am sorry to lose Dr Tonge from the frontbench team. She will continue to represent her constituency on the backbenches of the House of Commons."

The Labour Friends of Israel group and the Opposition front bench had all called for Tonge to apologise.

Labour's Louise Ellman said Dr Tonge was giving the "green light" to terrorism.

And speaking from Israel where he is leading a visit, the group's chairman James Purnell asked for a retraction.

"Last night the delegation met with victims of suicide terrorism from both sides," he said.

"They would be appalled by what Jenny Tonge has said. There is no monopoly on suffering from either side and her statement just perpetuates that suffering."

Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram had said Dr Tonge's comments would "sicken those across the world who have lost loved ones to suicide bombers".

"There can never be an excuse for taking innocent lives, and I am surprised that Ms Tonge is voicing her support for such terror."

But Dr Tonge defended her stance on Friday, saying that following visits to the Middle East she was offering an honest view.

"I was just trying to say how, having seen the violence and the humiliation and the provocation that the Palestinian people live under every day and have done since their land was occupied by Israel, I could understand and was trying to understand where [suicide bombers] were coming from," she told the BBC.

Dr Tonge has previously announced she will stand down as an MP at the next general election.