UNITED NATIONS, Aug 19: In a bid to combat the threat of terrorism on the high seas, the United Nations plans to introduce a rigorous biometric identity verification system by February next year.

The system would bring in its fold some 1.2 million global maritime workers according to a convention adopted by the International Labour Conference in June 2003, the UN labour agency said on Wednesday.

The convention seeks to balance the imperatives of security with the rights and freedoms of maritime workers and facilitate mobility in the exercise of their profession, for example when they board their ships to work, take shore leave or return home.

"The tragic consequences of terrorism can be aggravated by security measures resulting in hardship for the world's seafarers, including work under detrimental conditions or loss of jobs, and for world shipping in general," said Cleopatra Doumbia Henry, director of the ILO programme that promotes the new instrument.

"This convention provides an unprecedented international system for identification freely agreed to on behalf of governments, ship owners and seafarers," she added of the new "biometric template" which turns two fingerprints of a seafarer into an internationally standardized 2-D barcode on the Seafarer's Identity Document (SID).

Just two ratifications are needed for the entry into force of International Labour Organization Convention No. 185 aimed at bolstering international security in the global sea shipping industry, and Jordan has followed France with its endorsement, the 176-member agency said on Wednesday.

Employers' groups, workers' groups and governments represented on ILO's governing body supported the approval of a new standard as a matter of urgency to meet new security measures already being imposed on seafarers world wide. Until now there have been no international mandatory specifications for international identity documents.