The ''War on Terror'' is likely to last as long as the Cold War, a senior Government security official has warned.

Charles Farr, the head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, said that while the names of terror groups threatening the UK were likely to change, the threat itself would continue for decades.

Within ten years al-Qaeda could have been replaced by a different group with a similar ideology, he said.

His comments came in private evidence sessions with the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, extracts of which have been published