FRONT-LINE police officers will get a new state-of-the-art digital communications system under a £30m deal struck between Durham Police Authority and British Telecom.

The contract replaces the force's existing analogue radio network.

Police chiefs say the new set-up will be the most advanced in the world with links to every force in Britain.

Bobbies will be issued with new hand-held radios capable of crystal-clear broadcasts, which can double-up as mobile phones or data terminals to connect with national or local police computer networks.

The security-minded system means it will be almost impossible for anyone to eavesdrop on the encrypted transmissions.

Selected officers will put the new sets through their paces by the end of March next year before the system, including a newly equipped headquarters control room, goes live in May.

The Government is selling off the existing emergency channels and will pay £500m towards the cost of the new system, called Airwave.

Durham is set to receive £2.2m to cover the cost of buying 1,300 hand-held radios along with radio sets for every marked and unmarked police vehicle. A further £1.15m will cover revenue costs for the first year.

An automatic location system will be built into the sets of every police vehicle so their movements can be tracked.

Project manager Insp Brian Hills said: "The new radios are a 100 per cent improvement on what we have. They will do all the work of the existing equipment and a lot more besides.

"Officers on the streets will have direct access to the police national computer and will be able to send or receive confidential point-to-point calls from other individual officers or send text or status messages.

"But, while the radios are extremely versatile and have a huge range of new benefits, that does not mean every officer will have unlimited access to all areas of the force's work."

Insp Hills added the problem of how far officers can use the radios as mobile phones had yet to be resolved.

Scientists are running tests on hand-sets used in operational trials in Lancashire following concerns they might interfere with sensitive equipment in hospitals