Sussex Police carried out one tenth of all stop and searches in England and Wales under controversial anti-terrorism laws, new figures reveal.

Armed police went through 767 cars, lorries and vans and frisked 310 people - a total of 1,077 searches during the year to March 2002.

It was the highest figure for any constabulary in England and Wales outside London.

The Metropolitan Police carried out 3,598 searches while City of London Police conducted 3,409.

There were two arrests in Sussex, according to the official Government statistics.

Nationally, there were 10,186 searches - 9,239 of vehicles and 947 of pedestrians. These led to 189 arrests.

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "While the number of stop-searches appears to be higher than elsewhere, we have to bear in mind that we constantly review security at Gatwick.

"The events of September 11 2001 of course meant enhanced security.

"We also had the Labour Party conference in Brighton three weeks later, which again meant heightened security."

Nationally, police acted that year following an alert that explosives and weapons were being shipped into Britain.

Officers attracted criticism because they carried out searches under the controversial section 44 (1) and (2) of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The law, introduced in spring 2001, is intended for use against "terrorist attacks or measures that we had to take to counter terrorists."

The civil rights charity Liberty believes police forces are using the Act inappropriately to clamp down on genuine, and often peaceful, protests.

This is because it gives officers the power to search suspects without a warrant.

Shadow home secretary Oliver Letwin said the Act should be invoked only in genuine cases of national emergency.

He warned of a "slippery slope" towards its use as part of normal policing.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said a set of figures covering April 2002 to March 2003 would be published next month.