GREATER Manchester Police chiefs have been told they can recruit almost 400 new officers in the next two years -- instead of the three years originally planned.

Home Secretary Jack Straw has found an extra £24 million to accelerate his proposal to add an extra 5,000 bobbies to police strength nationwide.

Originally the new officers -- which should include 378 for Greater Manchester -- were to be recruited over the next three years.

Mr Straw had put aside £35 million for the current financial year to start the drive for more officers.

But now he has boosted that to £59 million and said the extra officers will be added to the strength in two years rather than three.

In Greater Manchester's case, this should mean an extra 186 policemen in 2000/2001 with another 192 in the following 12 months.

Nationally, there will be 3,000 extra recruits in the current year and 2,000 in the following one.

A delighted Mr Straw said: "In all, the service will be planning to recruit and train about 7,000 officers this year and 6,000 in the next, which, I am told, is not far off the maximum capacity available in this timescale in the training estate.

"On this basis of projections provided by forces, this should mean that the total number of police officers will be around 126,500 in March 2001 and 127,000 in March 2002.

"I must emphasise that these are projections, not predictions.

"And, to help ensure that good quality recruits come forward, we will be launching a major recruitment campaign over the summer."