The Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, yesterday launched a campaign to recruit more officers from ethnic minorities and shed its image as an overwhelmingly white male agency of wannabe James Bonds.

MI6's head of recruitment, identified only as "John", said that after its "rather comfortable cold war existence", the agency faced different threats, which required it to be "more flexible, more adaptable". That, he said, required people from more diverse backgrounds.

Ten per cent of its latest intake of high flyers - people who will be trained to gather secret intelligence and recruit and run agents abroad - were from ethnic minorities, and about 35% female, he said. The aim is to get many more. The proportion of women in top jobs in the domestic Security Service, MI5, has been running at about 50%.

MI6's chief recruiter disclosed that there was "a lot of soul searching" during the controversy over the Iraqi weapons dossier and the suicide of David Kelly, the government Iraqi weapons expert. He added: "It was a significant moment for our organisation, which we dealt with in a very honest way among ourselves."

MI6 started to recruit spies openly through its website two years ago. Before that, as John put it, it was left to a "talent spotter network at certain universities'" - a euphemism for a tap on the shoulder by Oxbridge dons. Since then MI6 has been placing advertisements in the media, including newspapers aimed at an ethnic minority readership. Yesterday was the first time in its 99-year history that it has taken a direct approach, inviting people from minorities to meet its officers head-on.

"We are not looking for a James Bond - people jumping out of windows, running around disobeying orders, drinking dry martinis, clutching women, and firing guns," one officer, called Catherine, said. The job might sound dangerous, but generally it was not, she said. Ensuring the safety of the staff was paramount.

Nick, a black recruit, said he was attracted to MI6 because it offered the prospect of living and working overseas. He had been posted to the Middle East and Africa.

Far from budding James Bonds, said John, MI6 needed people with discretion, people who were good at sustaining relationships and who could "recruit and run people" as spies.

John described the experience as having a "window on history". MI6 officers were sometimes "ahead of what happens in the world", and knew more than just what was on the television news.