The British Council is to close half of its public offices in Europe by March next year and shift its attention to Muslim countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, The Times has learnt. The state-funded cultural body will divert £7.5 million — nearly a third of the public money it spends in Europe — to countries stretching east from Saudi Arabia to Kazakhstan so that it can play its part in the war on terrorism.

It will scrap traditional arts activities on the Continent, such as orchestral tours and artistic commissions, in favour of projects designed to prevent Muslim youths from being indoctrinated by extremists sympathetic to al-Qaeda.

The changes, most of which will come into effect this year, are the council’s most sweeping transformation since its creation in the 1930s.

It is motivated by changes in policy at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which gives the council £186 million of taxpayers’ money each year, and by the realisation that much of the organisation’s work in Europe can be conducted over the internet.

Martin Davidson, Director-General designate of the British Council, told The Timesthat part of his mission was to build and repair cultural relations with Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia. Iraq and Afghanistan are two of the fifteen countries that will receive a 50 per cent increase in funding.

Mr Davidson said: “We started a year ago to ask the question: given the gap in trust that is becoming increasingly well-documented between Britain and the Muslim world, what are we going to do to react to that?

“Many aspects of our society are very attractive to people in the Islamic world, but there is a widening gap of trust.” The initiatives include a £20 million scheme to combat radicalisation of Muslim youths in Pakistan and other predominantly Muslim states. The Reconnect programme includes joint projects with madrassas – religious schools – in Pakistan “aimed at young people susceptible to extremism”.

Mr Davidson said that British military action in Iraq and Afghanistan had highlighted cultural misunderstanding rather than caused it. “We are trying to bridge a gap that has probably always been there. We are just identifying it more clearly than probably we have done before.”

Traditional projects in Europe, such as the London Sinfonietta’s tour of the Baltic states last year, will no longer receive funding, and the British Council libraries beloved of travellers and expatriates will be closed unless they can fund themselves by running education courses.

A total of 15 offices will close, reducing the council’s public face in Europe from 19 countries to 9. Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Slovakia and all three Baltic states will no longer have any public outlets.

Large-scale art commissions will be funded only at the Venice Biennale, although the council will continue to provide logistical support to touring artists and theatre companies.

Countries where activity will be increased include the Gulf states, Yemen, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. The only nonMuslim country to benefit is Nepal, which is predominantly Hindu.

Mr Davidson, who succeeds Sir David Green as Director-General on April 2, said that European projects would now be multilateral rather than bilateral. Examples include a scheme to strengthen European identity among European Muslims. “This is the most significant shift certainly since the fall of the Berlin Wall and probably longer,” he said.

Europeans wanting to learn about Britain have increasingly resorted to the internet, he said. Mr Davidson, a former flying officer for the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, has worked for the British Council since 1983.

He is Deputy Director-General and has worked for the organisation in Beijing, Hong Kong and London.

Open and shut

— The British Council was founded in 1934 to promote national culture, education, science and technology

— It supplements its £186 million annual grant with about £300 million in revenue from its educational work

— It was forced to close its language centre in Moscow last year after a diplomatic row over four British Embassy workers caught spying

— The British Council is closing offices in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, and Spain

— It is reducing its operations in the Czech Republic and Italy

— It has already shut offices in Bulgaria, Germany, Slovakia and Belgium

— The £7.5 million saved in Europe is being sent to Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Yemen, Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Uzbekistan

Source: British Council and Times database

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