WASHINGTON, Sept 29: Europeans who are allowed to travel to the United States without a visa will from Thursday have to give fingerprints and have a photo taken when they arrive at US airports and ports.

Up to now citizens of 27 countries - including 15 of the European Union countries, Australia, New Zealand and Japan - were exempt from similar security controls imposed on other visitors since the start of the year.

About 13 million people enter the United States needing no visa, using just a passport. The new entry rules "add minimal time to the process - an average of 15 seconds in most case," according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration agents will take digital imprints of both index fingers on an inkless scanner, and a digital photograph. The data will be checked with the passport information and cross-referenced against existing "no-fly" lists and crime databases.

The biometric identifiers also protect the visitors, according to a Homeland Security statement, "by making it virtually impossible for anyone else to claim their identity should their biometrically-enhanced travel documents (such as a visa) be stolen or duplicated."

The information will help authorities cross check the visitors with a list of wanted criminals. US border controls tightened considerably after the September 11, 2001 attacks, when terrorists hijacked and crashed four passenger aeroplanes, killing nearly 3,000 people.

"The US is committed to keeping our doors open to visitors," said Asa Hutchinson, the Department of Homeland Security's under-secretary for border and transportation security, at a press conference in London on Tuesday.

"We want to increase, and not to diminish, travel from Europe to the United States," he said. Since the new US security measures were introduced in early January at 115 airports and 14 seaports "more than 8.5 million foreign visitors have been processed without adversely impacting wait time," according to Homeland Security.

Since the new measures have been in place authorities have discovered of more than 280 suspected criminals and people travelling with false documents, officials said.

Starting December 31 the new measures will be extended to 50 US border crossings, and will be in place at all border crossings by the end of 2005. In one year, nationals of the 27 countries must also have a biometric passport, which will include a bar code and a digital photograph. In August US officials agreed to postpone the requirement until October 26, 2005 so that these countries can get the proper passport equipment.

The identification system at US airports still has problems: Senator Ted Kennedy, the brother of former president John F. Kennedy, was nearly denied permission to fly in March after his name landed in error on a no-fly list and then took weeks to be removed.

The new security system goes into effect one week after the British former pop star Cat Stevens, now a Muslim convert called Yusuf Islam, was deported by US authorities as a terrorist risk. US news reports said that Islam's name was mistaken for one "Youssouf Islam" who is on the terrorism watch list. -AFP