LOS ANGELES, Feb 1: Immigration officials on Friday extended the deadline for compiling information on foreign college students after schools complained that an Internet database created to collect the data had been working slowly, if at all.

The original deadline has been set for Thursday.

Officials at several colleges say they have had experienced difficulties with the database.

“There were certainly indications there were problems that were cropping up. This is a way to afford those schools two more weeks to work through those issues,” Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Chris Bentley said.

Software adjustments at Miami’s Florida International University mean it cannot begin submitting information for its 3,300 international students until next week.

Georgetown University in Washington and the University of Cincinnati had not been able to access the system until Thursday.

The INS has had a mandate to create a computerized system since 1996, and the long-delayed project was accelerated after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. One of the hijackers had entered the United States on a student visa.

About 583,000 foreign students were enrolled in the United States in 2001-02, according to the Institute of International Education.