Under attack for the way internal security has been handled, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] on Wednesday said his government was not soft on fighting terrorism and indicated that it was open to the idea of bringing a tougher law to deal with it.

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"There is no question of the government being soft on terrorism," Dr Singh said at the concluding day of the two-day Governor's Conference being held at Rashtrapati Bhavan [Images].

The prime minister regretted that the public debate on terrorism has tended to be driven by politics and centre on certain laws enacted or repealed by different governments.

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"Our government has no fixed, inflexible or ideological view in this regard," he said, adding, government was 'actively considering' legislation to further strengthen the anti-terrorism law in line with the global consensus on the fight against terrorism.

Dr Singh did not make any reference to anti-terror law POTA repealed by the UPA government. BJP has been strongly pitching for enactment of POTA-type tough law to act as a deterrent.

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Within the government and ruling Congress, there have been mixed voices -- one section favouring a tougher law while others feeling that existing laws are strong enough to combat the menace.

Singh admitted that the recent bomb blasts in Jaipur [Images], Ahmedabad [Images], Bangalore and Delhi [Images] indicated that 'there are still vast gaps in intelligence. These need to be overcome.'

Ruling out establishment of a central agency to coordinate counter-terrorism strategy, he said instead there was need for better coordination among the existing agencies.

Read the full text of PM's speech here....