David Blunkett is using a trip to the US to warn that the world now faces unique challenges in responding to the threat of large scale terrorism.

As he arrived in the US for talks on international terror and the response of global institutions, the home secretary said governments faced a new balancing act of weighing laws against human rights.

Warning that security had to be balanced with civil rights, he said administrations would have to act even where it meant they courted unpopularity.

Speaking to the Kennedy Law School in Boston Blunkett  said the world had to accept the "awful prospect of the suicide bomber".

And he warned that international organisations would also have to rise to the challenge.

"We must not make the mistake of thinking too much about purely individual rights and too little of duty and responsibility," he said.

"The developing challenge for today is to seek to extend this same idea into the international forum.

"We will inevitably have differences of view at different stages about how these will develop but we all I think recognise the need for this process of international engagement."