The Government today promised to shut down extremist websites.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will meet members of the online industry to decide how to crackdown on the al Qaida-inspired sites.

Illegal material will be tracked down and removed, using tactics already deployed against online paedophiles, she said.

Bary Malik, chairman of Ahmadiya Muslim Association in Bradford, said the internet is a good thing for many, but some extremists see it as an easy tool.

He said: "Some criminals are infiltrating through the internet and we have some terror groups who are using the internet to recruit people.

"I hope the Government will be successful in this and have some solid plan."

Miss Smith said grooming of vulnerable people for purposes of violent extremism must be stopped.

She said: "In the next few weeks, I will be talking to industry and critically to those in the community about how best to do this, how best to identify material that is drawing vulnerable young people into violent extremism.

"Where there is illegal material on the net, I want it removed. The internet is not a no-go area for Government."

It is unclear what form the crackdown will take but it could be setting up new ways to report sites.

Shadow security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said the Tories welcomed the positive step but said the announcement had come "much too late."

She added: "The Government should also have kept its promise to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir.

"Gateway organisations draw the young and vulnerable into extremism.

"It is no use just targeting websites when such groups are free to undermine British society and values."