Geoff Hoon is set to announce a review of the UK's armed forces following September 11's terror attacks on New York and Washington.

And reports in the Guardian reveal that the role of Britain's elite SAS force could be expanded to take on the threat of global terrorism.

The defence secretary will tell Labour's conference that the Ministry of Defence is to review the structure, equipment and strategy of the armed forces.

"We have thought about terrorism before, but the scale of what happened on September 11 makes it necessary to undertake a re-examination," an MoD source told the Guardian.

High on the MoD agenda will be an assessment of the UK's readiness and capacity to combat a new ruthless form of globalised terrorism.

"We never envisaged that there would be so many terrorists willing to lose their lives, attack a major civilian target and operate in such a coordinated way. A very small cell of people can have a massive disproportionate effect," said the MoD source.

The review will also examine the nature of the terrorist threat and develop a strategy for Western governments to develop the flexibility to hit relatively small targets.