British Prime Minister David Cameron has announced his government would draw up measures to ban suspects who are British nationals from returning to the UK, while police will get enhanced powers to temporarily strip departing suspects of passports at the border.
He announced the measures in parliament after Britain raised its terror threat risk level to "severe" on Friday - meaning an attack is thought "highly likely" - due to fears over the situation in Iraq and Syria.
"Adhering to British values is not an option or a choice. It is a duty for all those who live in these islands so we will stand up for our values, we will in the end defeat this extremism and we will secure our way of life for generations to come," Cameron told the House of Commons.
Some 500 British jihadists are estimated to be fighting in the two countries, both of which are facing a major offensive from the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
British police made 69 arrests linked to fighting in Syria in the first half of 2014 - a rate five times higher than in 2013 - with offences including suspicion of travelling abroad for terrorist training.
The measures apply to suspects where there is insufficient evidence to charge or deport them and are the latest steps in years of debate since the September 11, 2001 attacks over how to handle suspected Islamic extremists in Britain.
Police will be able utilise rarely-used powers known as a Royal Prerogative to seize at Britain's borders the passports of those they suspect want to travel and fight in Syria and Iraq.
Cameron said his government would also be drawing up "a targeted discretionary power to allow us to exclude British nationals from the UK".
Fears in Britain about the number of homegrown fighters joining jihadists were fuelled last month by a graphic video showing the killing of US journalist James Foley by IS, which featured a man with a London accent.
But Cameron insisted the measures were not a "knee-jerk reaction" amid fears from his coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, about possible civil liberties contraventions.
Civil liberties are a key part of the centre-left Liberal Democrats' political philosophy and the party was reluctant to back steps it sees as too draconian ahead of next year's general election.
In a blow to the Liberal Democrats, Cameron also announced a tightening of Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs).
These allow suspects who have been assessed by intelligence agencies to be tagged electronically and prevented from travelling overseas.
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