British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw appealed to European Union nations Tuesday to urgently put in place plans for closer coordination in the war against terror, but cautioned against a crackdown on individual freedoms. Straw, speaking to the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, said authorities' response to terror must not infringe on civil liberties. "We will not do what the terrorists want by setting up a police state," Straw was quoted as saying by The Associated Press, but he acknowledged that EU nations needed to "rebalance rights of individuals with the rights of society" on combatting terrorism. He said special EU justice and home affairs talks on Wednesday would focus on improving the exchange of intelligence and ways to retain telephone and e-mail records in investigations.
