LONDON, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 75 million pounds is to be spent on improving security in Britain over the next two years, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced on Monday.

    In a key-note speech delivered at Westminster, Brown, long seen as Prime Minister Tony Blair's successor, said since the July 7 suicide bombings in London, the Treasury had had to become a department for security, as the issue now dominates the decisions of all government departments.

    "Security is vital to the prosperity and future of this country, and the immediate priority is how to protect our citizens," he said, adding that robust measures which include giving the police and armed forces the power necessary to tackle terrorism head-on and taking steps to isolate extremists were in the pipeline.

    Brown pledged that by 2008 a total of 75 million pounds (about 135 million U.S. dollars) will be invested in Metropolitan Police anti-terror operations.

    The Treasury is also working to root out terrorist sponsors so there will be "no hiding place for the money that funds terrorism."

    Since 2001, Britain has frozen 80 million pounds (some 144 million dollars) of terror assets, which includes funding channeled through charity.

    Additionally, Brown said any necessary steps needed to secure the country's borders would be taken.

    "We will move toward introducing a biometric border system. Our next step is to electronically and biometrically examine passengers. We must do all we can to prevent IDs being stolen or abused to ensure identity security," he said.

    According to the chancellor, identity fraud costs the country about 1.7 billion pounds a year and one in four criminals in Britain are using false IDs.

    Despite Labour's failure to push through Parliament legislation which allows a maximum 90-day detention period without charge for terrorist suspects, Brown is still calling for longer questioning time than the approved 14 days.

    "Due to time restraints some terror suspects are not prosecuted. We need the power to hold terror suspects beyond 14 days. We must ensure a balance between civil liberties and security needs," he said.

    Concluding his hour-long speech, Brown, who is widely speculated to have taken up a "dual premiership" alongside Tony Blair, pledged that the national resolve of Britain to fight terrorism is "indestructible" after July 7, and that "we will never sacrifice the values terrorism wishes to destroy." Enditem