PARIS (AFP) - France and the United States will co-chair an international working group on biometrics, new personal identification technology that will come on stream in the near future, it was announced at a meeting of G8 justice and interior ministers in Paris.
The news was presented by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as an indication of business returning to normal between the two countries after the breakdown in relations over the war on Iraq.
Among those at the G8 gathering was US Attorney General John Ashcroft, the highest-ranking American official to visit France since the diplomatic crisis.
But Ashcroft failed to attend a press conference alongside Sarkozy as scheduled.
Officials at the meeting said he had been told by US President George W. Bush not to appear before the press.
Sarkozy also announced agreement between the Group of Eight (G8) -- the leading industrial nations plus Russia -- on the creation of an international database for use in the fight against child pornography.
The database well be able to be updated and consulted by all 181 members of Interpol, which will operate it.
The picture database will enable investigators to trace victims and perpetrators of pedophile crimes in the fight against sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
The gathering here prepared the ground for a G8 summit -- bringing together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- in the French town of Evian-les-Bains from June 1 to 3.
As this year's host, France is obliged to cooperate closely with the United States, which takes over the G8 chair in 2004.
With much of the focus on terrorism, the ministers issued a statement saying that the threat from the al-Qaeda network remained serious.
"In spite of the elimination of most of its bases in Afghanistan, it seems that other camps have been reactivated in other areas in the zone. The organisation's abilities have been shaken by... recent arrests, but dormant individuals and cells are always ready to act," the statement said.
The French government -- which vehemently opposed the Iraqi war -- had warned the conflict would increase recruitment to Islamic extremist groups.
The ministers also agreed to press ahead urgently with the development of biometrics -- the use of unfalsifiable personal data such as iris scans, fingerprints and facial measurements as a tool against identity fraud and the criminal and terrorist gangs who practise it.
The Franco-American working group is to report by the end of the year, with the emphasis on securing agreement between the developed nations on what personal information should be included in coded form on future passports and other identity cards.
But the ministers expressed concern at American plans for biometrics use which they fear could hinder freedom of movement.
The United States has fixed October of next year as a deadline for introducing biometric controls on identity and travel documents required for entry into its territory.
Britain's Home Secretary David Blunkett commented: "We do need to know where we are going because otherwise the imposition of new surveillance techniques and new requirements including by the United States will have... a detrimental effect on the speed of travel, on trade and commercial arrangements."
The American project could also have implications in the issuing of visas, European Union Security Commissioner Antonio Vitorino warned.
He said the Commission was preparing its own proposals for passports and visas issued by the EU using biometric techniques.
At a private meeting with Ashcroft, French Justice Minister Dominique Perben expressed concern about six French citizens among prisoners being held from the 2001 Afghanistan war on suspicion of terrorism at the US base at Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba.
"I asked Mr Ashcroft about the situation of French people at Guantanamo, in order to underline the fact that a certain number of French families and French observers believe the situation has become immobile, unchanged and a cause for concern," Perben later told journalists:
"Mr Ashcroft indicated he had taken note of this position and of French concern."
None of the 650 detainees at Guantanamo has had access to a lawyer or been presented to a judge.
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