JERUSALEM -- Israel’s security technologies were on display as the country hosted the mayor of Accra - Alfred Vanderpuije - and 36 of his colleagues from two dozen worldwide cities, at the homeland security conference last week.

"Israel has been forced to overcome difficult circumstances, including war and terror, in order to survive," said Vanderpuije, following a visit to Elbit Systems, a defense electronics company based in Haifa. "And this has put the Israelis in a unique situation to develop security technologies."

"I was very impressed with what I saw and am even thinking about bringing some of these ideas back to Ghana," Vanderpuije said.

In the decade following the terror attacks of 9-11, Israeli security exports rose from about $2 billion a year to more than $7 billion, according to data supplied by SIBAT, Israel’s Defense Export and Defense Cooperation Agency. Part of the rise was attributed to the growing international demand for more effective homeland security systems.

At Elbit and other security firms such as Magal Security Systems and Elta Group, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, Vanderpuije and the other mayors saw presentations on defense technologies.

Originally developed for the Israel Defense Forces to fight wars and terror, many of the systems are being modified for civilian use, such as securing large cities.

Called the "digital army project," Elbit's technology connects all military forces to a single communication network that enables the free transferral of audio and video information.

"From the individual soldier to entire divisions on the land, in the air and on the sea, all our forces are interconnected," said Dalia Rosen, Elbit's vice president of corporate communications.

"In the past few years we have begun adopting the tools we have developed and applied on the battlefield for use in a civilian context to create what we call 'safe cities.' "

The basic tools that are used to fight terrorism can be used to fight crime and help officials react more efficiently to natural disasters, said Amnon Sofrim, who heads Elta’s homeland security projects.

"Instead of endless patrols, we can use strategically placed cameras or electronic devices connected to a situation room to detect the beginning of a robbery or a fire," said Sofrim, former chief of the IDF's intelligence corps. "And this allows us to use a limited amount of security forces or firefighters only where they are really needed."

There were signs that the meetings between mayors and Israeli security experts might lead to business ties.

While private Israeli firms were showing the mayors homeland security technologies, a similar show-and-tell was taking place in Tel Aviv at Interpol's 41st regional conference, the first time Israel has hosted such a conference since it joined the international police organization in October 1949.

Among the Israeli innovations on display were the "skunk," a liquid with a putrid odor, and the "screamer," a hand-held device the size of a bullhorn that emits a sound so loud that it can paralyze.

Israeli police developed both as non-lethal means of crowd control in the wake of the October 2000 riots that left 12 Arab Israelis dead.