British govt wants personal details of every traveller

Passengers travelling between European Union countries or taking domestic flights would have to hand over a mass of personal information, including their cellphone numbers and credit-card details, as part of a new package of security measures being demanded by the British government. The data would be stored for 13 years and used to "profile" suspects.

Brussels officials are already considering controversial anti-terror plans that would collect up to 19 pieces of information on every air passenger entering or leaving the EU.

Under a controversial agreement reached last summer with the US Department of Homeland Security, the EU already supplies the same information (19 pieces) to Washington for all passengers flying between Europe and the US.

But Britain wants the system extended to sea and rail travel, and to be applied to domestic flights and those between EU countries. According to a questionnaire circulated to all EU capitals by the European commission, the United Kingdom is the only country of 27 EU member states that wants the system used for "more general public policy purposes" besides fighting terrorism and organised crime.

The so-called passenger-name record system, proposed by the commission and supported by most EU governments, has been denounced by civil libertarians and data-protection officials as draconian and probably ineffective.

"If you ask the UK government how many terrorists have been picked up, I don't think you get a very straight answer."