The Los Angeles City Council on Monday passed an initiative to safeguard the city from possible terrorist attack or natural disaster.

The council's Public Safety Committee voted 5-0 to pass the Homeland Security and Disaster Preparedness Initiative. The approved plan includes reassigning 73 police officers and hiring 10 firefighters as part of a new public safety unit that would concentrate on homeland security.

The initiative was proposed on Feb. 2 by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

The vote on Monday followed an announcement by U.S. President George W. Bush last week that an Al-Qaeda plot against a bank building in the second largest city had been "thwarted."

The committee called for spending 1.6 million U.S. dollars on the plan this year, using funds in the police and fire department budgets. The total budget of the program is expected to reach 2.6 million dollars for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.

The Personnel and Budget and Finance committees are also expected to discuss the mayor's plan before it heads to the full council for a final decision.

The 73 officers at the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) working on the specialized unit would come from other areas of the department, while the fire department would hire 10 additional personnel. Part of the new force would help staff a new Joint Regional Intelligence Center, according to the plan.

The intelligence center, which encompasses the LAPD, county Sheriff's Department, FBI and state Office of Homeland Security, will analyze and investigate local terrorist threats.

The mayor's initiative also called for creating an LAPD

Intelligence Analysis Unit, increasing staff for the department's

anti-terrorism unit, enhancing the fire department's disaster

preparedness plans, and providing additional training for

firefighters in terrorism and natural disaster scenarios.

Source: Xinhua