LONDON - British police charged four men with terrorism offences late Sunday followed raids last week in Manchester and near London's Heathrow airport, an officer said.

Israr Malik, 21 was charged with intending to commit acts of terrorism, namely violent jihad, between June 2008 and November 17 this year, the officer said.

Matthew Newton, 27, Munir Farooqi, 52, and Haris Farooqi, 26, are charged with intending to assist others to commit acts of terrorism, namely violent jihad, between October 2008 and November 17 this year.

"Four men have been charged after an operation by the North West Counter Terrorism Unit that took place on November 16," the officer said.

Five men were arrested in the pre-dawn raids, which police then described as a "low-key" operation, and officers were given seven days to question them.

The arrests, including one man seized in a hotel near Heathrow, follow a 15-month investigation and were linked to an alleged overseas threat, reports said.

The four are due to appear at the City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Monday. The fifth man was released without charge.

Britain reduced its national terror alert status in July from "severe" to "substantial," its lowest since July 2005 suicide attacks in London which killed 56.

In June 2007 there were failed car bomb attacks in central London and at Glasgow airport in Scotland, days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair.