LONDON - BRITAIN'S foreign intelligence agency MI6 has opened its doors to a popular radio programme, in a bid to recruit the minorities and female officers it says it needs to spy on the country's enemies.

MI6 allowed BBC Radio One - a station aimed mainly at young people - to conduct the first-ever interviews inside its London headquarters.

The interviews were tightly policed: The MI6 chief of recruitment was referred to by a fake name, and the reporter's movements inside the building were strictly controlled.

'People who have a different ethnicity can often go places and do things and meet people that those from a white background can't,' he said. 'There are some places that white males can't go.'

MI6 is trying to shed its James Bond-inspired image, something the recruiter said gave others 'a false impression of what working for the organisation is actually like'.

'It does tend to turn up quite a lot of thrill- seekers and fantasists, and we're really not interested in them,' he said.

MI6 recently advertised for Somali speakers, and boasted in job listings that the agency's imposing headquarters on the River Thames has 'basketball courts...a restaurant, coffee lounge and bar'.

Parts of the week-long programme featured by the BBC seemed aimed at recruiting from Britain's large Muslim community.

One female Muslim agent interviewed emphasised that her work and her faith were completely in tune.

'The way I feel is my duty to God is totally compatible with my duty to my country,' she said. 'I feel very, very strongly that if you are able to do something to make a difference, you should make that difference.'

MI5, the spy agency's domestic counterpart, is also trying to enlist more recruits from minority backgrounds as it expands its staff from 3,000 people to 4,000.

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