Britain is to launch a public warning system to alert people to the threat of terrorist suicide attacks, the Sunday Telegraph reported.

Details of the American-style system, to be unveiled on Monday by Home Secretary John Reid, will be published on the Home Office and MI5 websites.

According to the paper, the number of threat levels will be down from the current seven to five but they will not be colour-coded. The levels will be updated and the public will be advised as to what action to take in response to any threat.

However, the intelligence behind a change to the threat level will remain secret along with the warning system to cover the response levels of the security services to potential threats.

The current threat levels are determined by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center based at MI5 in London, which handles more than 50,000 items of intelligence every year, said the report.

The center's role came under intense scrutiny after last July's London bombings when it emerged that the organization had lowered the threat level from "severe general" to "substantial" only a month before the attacks.

MI5 currently uses a seven-tier threat level system which has been deemed as confusing. The confidential levels range from "negligible", through "severe (defined)" when an attack is "likely," to "critical" when an attack is deemed imminent.

Source: Xinhua