Terror: EU plan for vetting of air passengers

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· An urgent £237,000 research project into how to detect liquid explosives, which were at the centre of last week's alleged plot;

· New moves against internet sites that incite terrorism and detail bomb-making techniques;

· The adoption across Europe of the new British regime of hand luggage checks at airports;

· Further measures to curb radicalisation and recruitment among Europe's Muslim communities;

· A Euro-summit of security services later this month to "pre-empt the terrorists' next plot".

Mr Reid said after the meeting: "What's clear to all of us is that we face a persistent and very real threat across Europe. It is a threat we face here in Britain as individuals and as communities, but it's not unique to the UK. It affects us all across the European Union."

Mr Reid said in considering the use of advanced passenger data it was important to distinguish between "positive profiling" and "ethnic or racial profiling". It was not clear last night how far Britain was prepared to go in signing up to the use of such advanced passenger data but the Home Office has two pilot schemes running, Project Iris and Project Semaphore. The latter involves screening 10 million passengers a year on selected international routes.

The recent Home Office plan to turn the immigration service around also includes proposals for a "trusted traveller" scheme which would allow 40,000 passengers to fast-track through airport security checks by the end of this year with rapid expansion to follow. More stringent security checks however are to be carried out on travellers from "high-risk" countries or routes creating a two-tier system of passengers.

A Spectator/YouGov poll published this morning suggests that a majority - 55% - would be happy to see passenger profiling at airports.

But ministers acknowledged yesterday that some EU countries, particularly France and the Netherlands, want to go much further and introduce explicit checks on Muslim travellers. Claude Moraes, an Asian Labour MEP, said yesterday the random checks he faced travelling around Europe had increased in recent years and warned that assuming that race or religion was a predictor of terrorism was a "recipe for disaster".

Professor Takis Takimidis of Matrix Chambers said yesterday that positive profiling could be a disguised way of racial profiling.

"For instance if the authorities only profile those who have Asian names. But if they profile everybody who is a passenger, I can't see what could be wrong with this. But it's very hard to say whether 'positive profiling' would be problematic without knowing exactly what it is.

"Even if the comparison contains an ethnic element then that might be justified on grounds of national security. On the other hand, if anyone who has a criminal record is stopped that may well be a violation of a person's free movement within the EU. That has nothing to do with discrimination but it may be disproportionate interference. Basically it depends on the circumstances."

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