EXCLUSIVE

The NYPD is going global in the new year – posting cops in Europe and the Middle East in its expanding war on terrorism.

Members of New York’s Finest will be permanently stationed in four foreign cities as part of a new initiative:

* London, where they will work with fabled Scotland Yard.

* Hamburg, to share notes with the German police agency, the Bundeskriminalamt.

* Lyon, France, to interface with the international police agency, Interpol.

* Tel Aviv, Israel, to work with the Mossad intelligence agency.

While all four cities have seen terrorist activity, London and Hamburg investigators unearthed terror cells linked to Osama bin Laden and the hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center.

Since Police Commissioner Ray Kelly began to reconfigure the Intelligence Division, expanding its mission to include combating terrorism, the NYPD has posted two detectives in Washington to speed up information flow from the feds and another officer in Toronto, where there are numerous international terror connections.

But the move to Europe and the Middle East marks the first time the NYPD will station cops overseas.

Sources say the NYPD weighed posting its cops in several of the world’s deadliest terror hotbeds, including Indonesia, where the worst terror attack since Sept. 11 occurred last month – the bombing of Bali nightclub, which killed about 180 people.

But Kelly and his top aides decided to leave those assignments, for now, to the joint FBI-NYPD Terrorist Task Force.

Other places considered by the NYPD brass included Cairo, which was a base of operations at one time for bin Laden’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. The Philippines, where the al Qaeda-connected terror group Abu Sayyaf is active, was also under consideration.

The overseas stations continues the expansion of the NYPD’s role in monitoring counterterrorism and counterintelligence under Kelly and his newly installed deputy commissioner for intelligence, David Cohen, a former head of the CIA operations.

After Sept. 11, Kelly said it was imperative for the NYPD to reach out to foreign spy-masters and anti-terror experts to enhance the NYPD’s own intelligence database.

Since then, the NYPD has assigned nearly 1,000 cops to anti-terrorism duties, from guarding potential targets to checking on an average of 50 phone tips to a hot line set up to report suspicious activities.

The World’s Finest

Starting in the New Year, the NYPD will station city cops overseas to battle terrorism.

London, England

City cops will liase with the fabled Scotland Yard and other British anti-terror outfits.

Hamburg, Germany

New York’s Finest will work with the Bundeskriminalamt in the city where 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta lived for years.

Lyon, France

NYPD cops will work closely with Interpol, which is headquartered here.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Big Apple police work in Israel with the highly-effective Mossad spy agency.

Indonesia

City police brass decided to let the joint FBI-NYPD Terrorist Task Froce handle this posting.