By Paul Burnell BBC News, Manchester

Det Supt Peter Minshall heads GMP's anti-terror squad

English cities have been terrorist targets in the past but the new threat from international terrorists is of a "different dimension", the man heading the first English police anti-terror unit outside of London believes.

Seven months ago Det Supt Peter Minshall started work as boss of the new counter-terrorism unit at Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

The squad comprises 20 officers with a strong track record in cases ranging from organised crime to high profile murders.

West Midlands Police are following suit and other forces have similar plans.

I don't want to paint Manchester as the centre of all terrorist activity but there's plenty to do

Twice in the 1990s Manchester was targeted by IRA bombs but GMP never had a specialist unit, so why now?

"Our chief constable is very forward thinking," Mr Minshall says.

"In the last two or three years we have had a number of terrorist-related investigations where we have to bring together different teams of detectives to investigate.

"But then they go back to their other areas of business. It seemed to make eminent sense with a number of investigations seemed to make sense to have our own team."

Det Con Stephen Oake was murdered during a terror raid

The modern terrorist uses mobile phones, the internet and money laundering techniques similar to organised crime rather than face to face plotting, Mr Minshall says.

"This a large part of the new face of terrorism compared to what was routine in 1996," he said.

"All law enforcement agencies have had to devise new ways of investigating terrorist networks."

One of the previous terrorist investigations led to the death of Det Con Stephen Oake in 2003.

The Special Branch officer was stabbed during an operation to arrest terror suspect Kamel Bourgass, who was jailed for life last year for Mr Oake's murder.

And the issue of dealing with potentially dangerous bombers has been thrown into sharper relief with the shooting of an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, on the Tube earlier this year.

So would Greater Manchester officers use lethal force to stop bombers?

All law enforcement agencies have had to devise new ways of investigating terrorist networks

"I am not prepared to answer that," comes the straight batted reply.

Mr Minshall is equally cagey when it comes to revealing statistics for arrests or investigations in the unit's short history.

However he added: "I don't want to paint Manchester as the centre of all terrorist activity but there's plenty to do."

But should the people of Greater Manchester be reassured or concerned that the force has a counter terrorism unit?