European Union nations will have to start issuing new biometric passports with a chip containing facial features by the end of August and prepare to add fingerprint data by 2009, EU officials said yesterday.

"By August 26 of this year, member states will need to be able ... to include a facial image in a chip," said Friso Roscam Abbing, spokesman for EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini.

He said Frattini would present plans to EU justice and interior ministers for adding fingerprints to the new biometric passports in two to three weeks time. Member states have had since February last year to ready for adding the chip with facial scans to their passports.

Roscam Abbing said the new biometric features, which reduce patterns of fingerprints, faces and irises to mathematical algorithms to be stored on a chip, would go beyond US security standards.

EU nations participating in the American visa-waiver program were given until October this year to comply with US standards to have either a digital photo or a chip containing biometric data in their passports if they wanted to continue visa-free travel to the United States.

Officials said similar security features would be introduced shortly to visa's given out by EU nations.

(China Daily June 2, 2006)