LONDON, March 19: Britain is to increase the number of spies it employs to tackle threats from extremists, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday as he presented a first report on new national security strategy.

Staff numbers in the domestic service MI5, the overseas service MI6 and its “listening” station GCHQ “will rise to 4,000, twice the level of 2001” before the attacks in the United States, he told lawmakers.

Four new regional counter-terrorism units and four regional intelligence centres would also be created, while there would be greater input on security matters from non-government experts, he added.

Elsewhere, Brown said the public should be better informed about the existing threat to the country from extremists, announcing the publication from later this year of a “national register of risks”.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security oversight committee should also be more transparent, holding meetings in public rather than behind closed doors, with lawmakers discussing security issues more, he added.

Brown, meanwhile, restated Britain’s commitment to lead the way on controlling nuclear proliferation and reduction plus the creation of a 1,000-strong civilian standby force to go into failed and failing states.

Both proposals had been announced during a speech on reform of international institutions on Jan 21 this year in India.

There were also commitments to conflict prevention and resolution in world hotspots, including funding 850 Burundian troops in Somalia, and reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq.—AFP