The Home Secretary paid a visit to a Jewish security charity yesterday as part of a Hendon tour.

Jacqui Smith commended senior staff at the Community Security Trust (CST) for working effectively with the Home Office in its attempts to protect the Jewish community from anti-Semitism and terror.

Talking at Shield House, in Harmony Way, she said: "The CST clearly has the same objectives as we do on home security: to help people live and learn and worship in the way they need to.

"The CST's contribution in the recording of incidents, the training of the community, the provision of security and the building of relationships with those who rely on them for security and safety is very important for its partnership with the Home Office."

Ms Smith said increased vigilance by the Government and community security groups had contributed to rising success rates in tackling extremist behaviour. But she conceded that more needed to be done, such as "broadening the range of voices the Government can talk to from the Muslim community" and regulating the internet.

She said: "We need to look at the internet as it is a form of promotion of violent extremism. We recently met with service providers to make them take their responsibilities seriously. Plus we've changed the law to provide the ability, where there is clearly a promotion of what is terrorism, to remove that material from the website.

"But more tricky are those websites that are on the edge of being illegal, but are something we'd want to challenge."

Educating children early and "developing dialogues" between different local and national communities were the best methods of tackling extremism, according to Ms Smith. But she admitted that the Government needed to find more proactive methods of receiving information from the Jewish community.

Asked whether Jewish schools would receive extra Government funds for security to stop them asking parents for voluntary contributions, Ms Smith said "some progress" had been made.

She added: "Some capital has been made for security provision, but we will continue to work with schools and organisations like CST to get the best advice on school design and security measures."

CST spokesman Mark Gardner said: "The Government has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to fighting antisemitism, not least with its strong response to the parliamentary inquiry into the problem.

"We are grateful to the Home Secretary for coming to see our work first hand. The struggle against all forms of prejudice is a vital part of protecting the democrative values on which our society is built."

Also attending the event were Labour's London Assembly candidate for Barnet and Camden, London deputy mayor Nicky Gavron, and Labour MP for Hendon, Andrew Dismore.

The CST is a registered charity funded by donations from the Jewish Commuinity. It provides security, training and advice for the protection of British Jews, particularly concerning terrorism and antisemitism.