OTTAWA, Oct 30: Canada, in a highly unusual warning, on Wednesday urged Canadian citizens born in Middle Eastern countries, eg Iran and Iraq, to think carefully before entering the United States, which has introduced tough new anti-terrorism rules.

The foreign ministry said it had issued the advisory after the introduction of new US rules stipulating that anyone born in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, or Syria needed to be photographed and fingerprinted on arrival in the United States.

Ottawa’s warning also follows the controversial deportation of a Canadian citizen by the United States to Syria, his birthplace, earlier this month.

The Foreign Ministry advisory, posted on its Web site, is another indication of how ties between the two neighbours have soured in past months amid disputes over trade, Iraq and immigration policies.

“Quite obviously, we do not agree with the American approach. We believe that this measure is discriminatory for some Canadians,” said foreign ministry spokesman Reynald Doiron.

The US rules, introduced on Sept 11 this year, are designed to tighten security by authorizing the immigration and naturalization service to track the arrival and departure of non-immigrants.

Doiron said Foreign Minister Bill Graham had raised this issue last month with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who gave assurances that some kind of flexibility would be introduced for Canadian citizens.

“We’re expecting some news from the Americans. They have not brought in that flexibility,” said Doiron.

The foreign ministry advisory also said those born in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Yemen could attract special attention from US authorities.

“In these circumstances, the (ministry) advises Canadians who were born in the above (eight) countries or who may be citizens of these countries to consider carefully whether they should attempt to enter the United States for any reason, including transit to or from third countries,” it said.

Last month US agents at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport arrested a Canadian they suspected of links to militant groups, finally expelling him to Syria on Oct 8.

Mohamed Arar — who also holds a Syrian passport — was arrested on Sept 26 as he was changing planes on his way back to Canada after a trip to Tunisia. He is now in detention in Syria, where authorities are investigating him for possible links to groups such as al Qaeda.

US critics charge that Canada’s immigration system does not do enough to weed out militants who might want to launch attacks in the United States.

But Doiron said all immigrants born in the eight countries concerned had to go through security screening before coming to Canada and again when they applied for citizenship.

“We believe therefore any security measures should be done on a case-by-case approach rather than putting all Canadians who just happen to be born in those countries in the same bag,” he said.

Hussein Amery, president of the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations, said the US rules were a clear case of racial profiling and urged Ottawa to toughen its stance.

“We think the Canadian Foreign Ministry should do even more to convince the United States that these are Canadian citizens and they should be treated with the same dignity, respect and rights as other people in this country, who were born here or emigrated from other countries,” he told Reuters.

“It certainly looks, smells and feels like racism...the Americans are certainly not treating Canadians as friends when they do this,” he added, referring to the Arar case.

Canada’s ties with the United States are already under strain over a protracted trade dispute about Canadian lumber exports, fresh tensions over wheat exports and Ottawa’s opposition to a unilateral US attack on Iraq.—Reuters