New Delhi: Declaring its commitment to repeal the controversial POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), the Centre today said it would not leave things in a "vacuum" and would amend the existing laws to tackle terrorism.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that the Government has taken a "decision in principle" to repeal POTA and asserted that the intention with which the anti-terrorism law was enacted was not achieved.

"We are not going to leave things in a vacuum. These problems can be solved. We will amend the existing laws," he said when asked whether the fight against terrorism could suffer if POTA was repealed.

The Home Minister, however, declined to give any specific time-frame by when the controversial Act would be removed from the statute book. He was replying to a query if the Government will bring a Bill to this effect in the Budget session of Parliament in July.

Asked if the repeal of the law will also have retrospective effect on the previous POTA cases, the Home Minister said the issue involved the State Governments and there was no case with the Centre.

"When we will take a decision on POTA, we will apply our mind on all these issues," he said.