European ministers meet in Austria to mull measures against terrorism
Interior ministers from seven European countries began meeting here on Friday to discuss ways for the continent to combat terrorism in the wake of the March 11 attacks in Madrid.
The ministers are also due to discuss measures to protect the new borders of the enlarged 25-member European Union and combat crime within the bloc, Austrian interior ministry spokesman Johannes Rauch told AFP.
The meeting comes a day after European countries rejected an apparent truce offer made by terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in an audiotape the CIA said appeared to be genuine, saying there would be no negotiations with the most wanted man in the Western world.
Strasser is expected to present his colleagues from France, Italy, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic with a "six point security pact" for the region, Rauch said.
******His plan provides for access to a European finger-printing databank, exchanges of information about people seeking visas and about travellers, improved cooperation between Interpol and its European equivalent Europol, new biometric information in passports and standardised security at EU airports.******
After the Madrid attacks, Austria called for the establishment of a new intelligence service dubbed "a European CIA", but ran into opposition from France and Germany.
French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin told journalists just before the meeting began that the EU was concerned about protecting its new borders once 10 mostly central European countries join on May 1.
"The protection of our borders is of great concern for all of Europe's states. This concern should now be shared by the 10 new countries that will join the EU."
De Villepin met privately with his Austrian counterpart, Ernst Strasser, on Friday morning and agreed that the two countries will cooperate more closely on security matters, Rauch said.
"They said they would concentrate on sharing more information, numbers and figures, on people coming into the region that can help to secure borders and prevent criminality," he told AFP.
Austria had also invited the interior ministers of Britain, Germany, Spain and Poland, but these states sent other government officials to the talks which were scheduled to end late afternoon.
The ministers are also due to discuss the status of refugees which has just been harmonised by the EU despite criticism from aid and rights organisations.
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