LONDON – The British government is considering creating special, closed-door anti-terror courts for pretrial hearings to determine how long suspects can be held without charge, the Home Office and newspaper reports said yesterday.

Terror suspects can now be held for 14 days without charges, but – amid investigations into the deadly July 7 bombings and the failed July 21 attacks on London’s mass-transit system – police have asked the government to extend this period to three months.

A Home Office spokeswoman – who, like all British civil servants is barred from being quoted by name – said the government was considering a new pretrial process but gave no other details. However, the Guardian reported that the new courts would meet privately to consider cases against terror suspects and rule on how long they could be kept in custody. The newspaper report cited Home Office sources.

Prime Minister Blair last week announced a series of tough new measures aimed at fighting terrorism and rooting out Islamic extremism. By the year’s end, the government intends to pass legislation that would outlaw “indirect incitement” of terrorism – targeting extremist Islamic clerics who glorify acts of terrorism and seduce impressionable Muslim youth.

Yesterday, one of three fundamentalist Muslim clerics whom the government has criticized confirmed that he had left Britain for Lebanon. The founder and spiritual leader of the now-disbanded radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, Sheik Omar Bakri, told the British Broadcasting Corporation he would return in four to six weeks unless the government declared him unwelcome. Mr. Bakri, who holds dual Lebanese-Syrian citizenship, could not be reached for comment.

Britain’s deputy prime minister, John Prescott, urged Mr. Bakri to stay out of the country. “Enjoy your holiday – make it a long one,” Mr. Prescott said yesterday when asked about Mr. Bakri at a press conference.

The chief prosecutor’s office is also considering reviving an old law, making it possible to file treason charges against those who praise acts of terrorism. The law, with roots in the Middle Ages, has rarely been used since World War II.