WASHINGTON, Aug 13: The United States has decided to fingerprint and photograph tens of thousands of visitors from the Middle Eastern and Muslim countries entering the country after Sept 11, US officials said on Monday.

Sept 11 has been chosen as the starting date for the new programme because of its symbolic importance as the day when America faced the worst terrorist attack in its history.

“After an initial 20-day period for testing and evaluating the system at selected ports of entry, all remaining ports of entry — including land, air and sea — will have the new system in place on Oct 1,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft while announcing the first phase of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System.

He said: “The visitors will be selected according to intelligence criteria reflecting patterns of terrorist organizations’ activities.”

Since all the 19 hijackers responsible for the Sept 11 disaster were Arabs and the on-going campaign against terrorism is also focused on Muslims, it is obvious that the new programme will mostly affect those from the Islamic countries.

However, the US government has identified five countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria by name. All visitors from these countries, considered sponsors of terrorism by the State Department, will be photographed and fingerprinted.

The programme will also apply to non-immigrant aliens whom the State Department determines to present an elevated national security risk, based on criteria reflecting current intelligence. Aliens identified by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) inspectors at the port of entry, using similar criteria, will also be scrutinized.

“The vulnerabilities of our immigration system became starkly clear on Sept 11,” said Ashcroft.

The new programme, which will be implemented by the INS, will correct some of the problems that led to the Sept 11 attacks, he said.