LONDON, March 17 (UPI) -- The British Prime Minister will this week unveil a U.S.-style National Security Council of politicians and officials, a newspaper reported Monday.
The Daily Telegraph said the new body, "based on the U.S. president's National Security Council … will be staffed by senior politicians including, potentially, individuals from other parties, intelligence and military chiefs, and scientific experts."
The paper said the new council would be announced Wednesday when Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveils his government's long-awaited security strategy.
It named Lord Ashdown, the former leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, as a possible opposition leader with the experience and status to serve alongside senior government ministers and officials from the Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Defense and Department for International Development on the council.
The council would have responsibility for protecting Britain from threats ranging from terrorism to climate change, the Telegraph reported.
"They include human and animal diseases, from pandemic flu to the blue tongue virus, disasters following extreme weather events, and computer hacking with serious economic implications," the paper quoted Lord West, the security and counter-terrorism minister, as saying.
Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, told the Telegraph, "Expectations will be high given the lengthy delay in (the) production of this strategy," adding that it "will be judged on whether it strikes the right balance between security and liberty."
The paper said the strategy was expected to deal with calls for an extension of the surveillance powers of Britain's internal security service, MI5, following reports that the agency wants access to a database of electronic records of travel on buses, subways and other commuter transit.
