"As well as changing the law to make sure that we can tackle that, I think there's more that we need to do to show that the internet isn't a no-go area as far as our tackling of terrorism is concerned," she said.

"We need to work with internet service providers. We need to actually use some of the lessons we've learnt about how we, for example, protect children from paedophiles and grooming on the internet to inform the way in which we use it to prevent violent extremism and to tackle terrorism as well."

She told the BBC it was part of a "broad approach" recognising the need to prevent people turning to terrorism in the long term - as well as preventing terrorist attacks now.

She said "grievances" about British foreign policy never justified terrorism - but she recognised the need to "debate, challenge and address those grievances".

Later she will meet internet service providers and members of the Muslim community to discuss measures to block websites which promote terrorism.

Next year the government will provide more than £500m to fund security and counter-terrorism measures, rising to nearly £600m over the following two years.

Ministers estimate that about 60,000 people have attended so far and an associated website gets 50,000 hits a month.

The government hopes that by encouraging more interaction between opinion formers in the UK and in predominantly Muslim countries, misunderstandings about Islam can be corrected.

Higher and further education centres are also set to receive guidance on how to help increase community cohesion and prevent violent extremism.