The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has altered the way it gives travel advice in response to a public outcry following the Bali bombing last October. However, it warned travellers that it could not always take final responsibility for whether trips should be made.

A comprehensive review of the popular service, launched by Foreign Minister Jack Straw after 'huge parliamentary and public demand for terrorism advice to be bumped up', was completed last week, with all 209 countries' travel notices revamped. The changes include:

· The terrorist threat to UK travellers in each country (whether considerable or non-existent) is the first item on each page.

· Ditching vague bureaucratic language in favour of plain English.

· Links to other countries' travel advice websites.

· A page of tips on how to keep safe within each country.

Later this year the travel advice will be available on a 24-hour voice recognition-operated telephone line.

A spokesman said: 'In the past, some of our advice hasn't been as clear as it might have been. We are trying to make the notices go back to facts in order to make things plain.'

'Travellers cannot always transpose onto the government the decision whether to travel or not,' he added.

The FCO faces several difficulties in presenting the terrorist threat to travellers. 'Of prime importance is the issue of public safety, closely followed by the desire not to do the terrorists' work for them,' an official said.

The FCO said it received hundreds of snippets of intelligence a week on potential terrorist threats worldwide, ranging from the lunatic to the credible, the vague to the specific.

After filtering the information through intelligence agencies, embassies and foreign governments, Foreign Office staff in London decide what will alter the travel advice.

'If the threat requires a potentially controversial decision to alter travel advice, it goes to Ministers,' a spokesperson said.

Ministers are currently considering such threats daily.

While many of the changes have been welcomed by the travel industry, some tour operators are worried about the increased influence of politicians on the travel advice unit.

Stuart Britton, managing director of Somak Holidays, said: 'There is more political bias in our Government's advice than in the advice of others. There's a danger that, on entering the page for any given country, the consumer would be scared witless when immediately confronted by a paragraph on terrorism.

'On the flip side, there's a risk that regular users will find the impact of the advice diluted.'

The FCO has been criticised both for scaring potential travellers unnecessarily (with warnings about travel to Phuket, Thailand) and for failing to give, or being late with, sufficient warnings of terrorist activity (Bali and Mombasa).

There was outcry after the Mombasa bombing last November when it was revealed that the Australian government had warned against travel there two weeks before. Now the FCO has installed links on its website to the sites of the governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand and the USA.

The FCO currently advises against travel or 'non essential travel' to 50 of the 209 territories featured. Its website receives 675,000 page hits per week and has 20,000 subscribers.

UK citizens made 60 million trips abroad last year, more than ever before.

· Foreign Office advice: 020 7008 0232/0233.