Police have set up racist incident reporting centres in Oxford to ease fears in the Muslim community following the attacks on the US.

Six new centres will open following a meeting between the Muslim community and police last week. Community leaders organised the meeting following an increase in racist incidents nationally after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon.

Although Oxford's good community race relations were cited as a reason, there has not been a major upsurge in attacks on Muslims in the city. Nevertheless, Chief Insp Mark Millar pledged increased support for the Muslim community.

He said there would be improvements in the way racist incidents could be reported to city police.

Two incident reporting centres, at the Asian Cultural Centre, in Manzil Way, and East Oxford Action, in Cowley Road, were up and running 24 hours after the meeting last Thursday.

Four more - at the Stanley Road Mosque, the Bath Street Mosque, the Bangladeshi Mosque in Cowley Road and via the Asian Women's Helpline on 0800 0526077- are now in place.