Senior police officers today backed controversial police tactics for dealing with suspected suicide bombers.
The support came despite the fatal shooting of an innocent man at Stockwell underground station, in south London, in July.
In a review of the anti-suicide bomber plan known as Operation Kratos, created by the Metropolitan police, the Association of Chief Police Officers concluded it was "fit for purpose".
Lawyers acting for the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was shot dead at Stockwell after being mistaken for a suspected suicide bomber, criticised the Acpo endorsement.
They reiterated demands for a full, open inquiry into the Brazilian's killing, and said the Acpo report had come before senior officers had been presented with the findings of an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry into the death.
Acpo should not "pre-determine" a proper investigation into the 27-year-old's killing before a full inquiry was completed, they said. He was shot in the head seven times by officers at Stockwell on July 22.
The IPCC has completed its investigation into his death and sent its report to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is still considering whether to charge any of the officers involved in the operation.
In a statement, lawyers for the De Menezes family said it was "no coincidence" Acpo had announced its findings ahead of tonight's BBC Panorama programme on the killing.
The programme charts the development of Operation Kratos, which involved officers travelling to Israel, Russia and Sri Lanka to learn how those countries dealt with the threat of suicide bombers.
It examines lessons that were not learned and the pressures that faced the police after 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers on three underground trains and a bus in London on July 7.
Barbara Wilding, a senior officer who helped create the plan, tells Panorama there were no tactics for dealing with the type of scenario that led to the death of Mr de Menezes.
Ms Wilding - now the chief constable of South Wales police - says the Kratos tactics dealt with a spontaneous suicide attack when there was no prior intelligence. There was no plan for a "mobile intelligence gathering operation" turning into a live operation targeting a suspected suicide bomber, she says.
Today's Acpo report said Operation Kratos - described by critics as a "shoot to kill" policy - was technically sound.
However, the report added that some areas of the policy could be improved, and an outline of it should be clearly explained in a leaflet available to the public.
Work to standardise firearms training should be sped up and communication and intelligence management could also be improved, it said.
The guidelines for using lethal force under Operation Kratos, which was created in the wake of the September 11 2001 attacks in the US, are confidential.
It is understood, however, that they involve police marksmen shooting suicide bomb suspects in the head with no warning in order to stop them detonating a device.
Police deny the tactics are "shoot to kill", with Scotland Yard describing them as "shoot to incapacitate".
"I am pleased that the existing policy has been deemed fit for purpose, and we now wait any IPCC recommendations," Acpo's president, Sir Chris Fox, said.
"While we await the IPCC findings of their investigation into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes to decide if the policy needs to be revised further, we felt it necessary to be sure we have tactics available to us that we can use in the face of extreme threat, and this review was therefore undertaken.
"Police officers faced with a threat have to identify and assess the threat and manage it. They must then use only such force as is proportionate in the circumstances."
The statement from the de Menezes family's lawyers added: "Until Jean Charles de Menezes was deliberately killed, no one knew that police in this country had secretly introduced for themselves, without any democratic debate or approval, a shoot to kill policy.
"Now Acpo seeks to reinstate the secret policy publicly before any inquiry into the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes is completed, confident that police can hide behind the claim that a criminal investigation is still under way."
The director of Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, said the Acpo report was unhelpful and would do nothing to improve public confidence in the policy.
Brazilian officials have criticised the UK authorities over the killing.
The country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is currently in London. He is likely to raise the issue of the death of Mr de Menezes when he meets the prime minister, Tony Blair, on the final day of his visit tomorrow.