The United States is putting pressure on the Group of 8 industrialised nations to beef up travel security and adopt a new safety initiative at their June summit to help thwart terrorist attacks, G8 diplomats said.
Dissatisfied with travel security measures so far, the US Secure and Facilitated International Travel Initiative calls for a string of measures including greater intelligence and data sharing on passengers, crew and cargo, as well as more uniform and computer readable travel documents.
Officials from two G8 countries at talks in Washington this week in preparation for the US summit in Sea Island, Georgia, said they were concerned about several elements of the initiative, especially those involving the release of passenger information and other privacy issues - topics that have also sparked opposition within the United States itself.
A senior European diplomat told Reuters the main problems with SAFTI concerned privacy and data sharing issues.
"The United States envisions a far broader exchange of data than we do and it's putting us under pressure," he said. "For example, we feel the Americans are putting some issues under the rubric of 'security' which don't strictly belong there."
"Remember that SAFTI has only just been proposed," another G8 official said. "We are co-operating to make improvements."
The officials said Washington was determined to push the initiative through.
"SAFTI will certainly be a main point of emphasis for the G8 for the next 18-20 months," the senior European official said. "The US is determined to get backing for this."
The Group of 8 comprises the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia. The United States holds the rotating presidency this year.
One G8 official said Washington raised the possibility of unilateral action such as restricted landing rights if states did not bolster their travel security swiftly enough.
Another said that while US officials were pushy, they were pragmatic and seemed willing to compromise in order to get the initiative approved.
"The Americans are robust in their demands. But I didn't feel they were blackmailing us. There was sufficient pragmatism. But they are putting on pressure and want to reach their goal," the senior European official said.
"I think the problems with SAFTI can be overcome, but I don't know whether we will in fact overcome them," he said.
The US proposal argues that steps taken by G8 members so far were insufficient and had led to "missed opportunities" to identify or catch suspected terrorists.
According to the initiative, the United States sees a "substantial gap" between safety needs and current standards, which may widen and "increase the danger associated with international travel considerably."
The proposal also says discrepancies in screening procedures were leading to the cancellation or deferment of travel, costing G8 member states billions of dollars.
The plan calls for a series of steps to be taken on a timeline stretching until the 2005 G8 summit, including ensuring greater international readability of passports, real-time information exchange on passengers, "controlled access" to terrorism and other watchlists in member states, development of best practices to use sky marshals on planes and reaching out to non-members to boost their travel security.
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