A special team, the Incident Response Unit, set up for the Olympic Games to respond to any chemical, biological, radiological and explosive incidents, is being re-instated as a result of the US terrorist attacks.

The Minister for Defence, Mr Peter Reith announced the recall on October 2.

He said that following the terrorist attacks on September 11 in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, the Government had decided to significantly enhance Defence's Counter-Terrorist and incident response capability.

Mr Reith said the terrorist actions in the US pointed to the need to better equip the ADF to deal with terrorist attacks which were highly planned and coordinated.

The Government has decided to effectively double the counter terrorist capability oif the Special Forces and to re-instate the specialist Incident Response Unit, whose capabilities in responding to chemical, biological, radiological and explosive incidents, were in place during the Olympic Games.

The Minister noted that while the White Paper had foreshadowed the increasing involvement of the ADF in unconventional operations, the events of September 11, had indicated the need for a higher level response to the threat of terrorism.

Mr Reith said the Government was unable, for security reasons, to give further details on the location or nature of the enhanced capability.