Intelligence experts believe that Islamic State has between 60 and 80 operatives planted in Europe poised to carry out attacks.

Dutch counterterrorism coordinator Dick Schoof said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that would-be fighters are heeding messages from the militant group 'asking them not to come to Syria and Iraq, but to prepare attacks in Europe.'

Mr Schoof said that over the last six months the number of 'foreign terrorist fighters' has not grown, but the fact that they're not traveling 'does not mean that the potential threat of those who would have traveled is diminished.'

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Islamic State is telling jihadists in Europe not to travel to the Middle East to join fighting there, but to instead prepare for attacks on home soil

Schoof said military operations to oust the Islamic State from its self-declared caliphate in Syria and Iraq are scattering the extremist group's fighters and supporters.

This will probably lead to a gradual increase of refugees that will pose a danger to the national security of the Netherlands and other European countries, he said.

Schoof said even though the Netherlands hasn't been hit by a major attack by Islamic extremists such as those in Belgium and France, 'the chance of attack in the Netherlands is real.'

'We have seen 294 terrorist fighters go overseas in Iraq and Syria and there are still 190 over there,' he said. 'And what happened in France and Brussels and Germany could happen to us' he said.

Islamic extremists are being told to prepare for more attacks on European soil, following on from major attrocities including those in Belgium and France, pictured

There are probably between 4,000 and 5,000 European 'foreign terrorist fighters' in Iraq and Syria, Schoof added.

While the number from the Netherlands, a nation of 17 million people, may seem low, he said, 'whether there's 190 or 350, I think the number is big enough to worry.'

Dutch counterterrorism coordinator Dick Schoof warned that extremists are preparing for attacks in Europe

Schoof, who was in New York to speak at a roundtable on 'returning foreign terrorist fighters,' said the Netherlands' program to deal with the threat balances 'repression and prevention' and relies on strong cooperation between local and national authorities.

Schoof stressed that the Netherlands does not tolerate 'anti-democratic behavior.'

'We try to prevent hate preachers coming in by not giving them a visa,' he said.

Last week, Schoof said, the Federation of Mosques, without being prompted, sent a letter to all mosques in the country saying 'the mosques themselves must realise that hate speech should not be accepted in the mosques.'