WASHINGTON -- The European Union and the United States will work together to develop a common standard for putting biometric data such as fingerprints on passports, British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said Thursday.
The EU and the U.S. will cooperate with the airline industry in working toward such a standard, he said.
"We agreed to put a new urgency into our approach and see if we can publish by the end of the year a set of common objectives," Clarke said.
He spoke after a meeting of ministers of justice and home affairs from the EU and the United States. Britain now holds the rotating EU presidency.
Biometrics include face recognition technology and fingerprint and iris scanning. Some European countries and Canada have started issuing passports with biometric data.
The United States issues passports with a microchip that contains a citizen's name, date of birth and photo. The microchip can include fingerprints but none are planned at present because privacy issues remain to be resolved.
Clarke said biometric passports are an effective tool for fighting terrorism and identity fraud.
He said the EU and the U.S. also moved forward on extending a reciprocal visa program to the 10 nations that joined the 25-nation EU last year. The extension would mean that citizens of all EU nations could visit the United States without acquiring visas in advance _ and vice versa.
Clarke said the U.S. and the EU discussed improving border security in these 10 nations: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Other topics covered at the meeting _ which took place in the context of recent bombings in Bali, Indonesia, and terrorist attacks in London last summer _ included counterterrorism measures, retention of telecommunications data such as e-mail, and strengthening cooperation with Europol, a pan-Europe police agency.
Participants in the talks included EU Commission Vice President Franco Frattini, Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop and Austrian Justice Minister Karin Gastinger. Austria takes over the EU presidency Jan. 1.
Representing the United States were Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Gonzales said an FBI agent would be assigned to Europol.
Frattini said as part of the joint effort to combat terrorism, the two sides agreed to reach out to religious organizations, including Muslim ones, to exchange information about people inciting others to violence.
Both Prokop and Gastinger said that when Austria assumes the EU presidency next year, one area it will focus on is security in west Balkan nations, including efforts to fight corruption and halt trafficking in children.
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