"We are all safer if we operate in a world in which intelligent use of information allows for more focussed efforts in determining who is a threat," US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said o­n Monday after a meeting with European Union lawmakers and officials.

The US and the 27-member EU are currently negotiating a permanent pact o­n the controversial sharing of key air passenger data which Washington requires from airlines as part of heightened security measures after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"We need to make sure that we have to provide the civilized world with appropriate tools to identify new security threats," Chertoff told a news briefing in Brussels.

The US has called for more data-sharing, claiming that European privacy concerns had unreasonably hampered its counter-terrorism activities in the past few years.

Data flow

Under the current interim pact, European air carriers are obliged to give US authorities up to 34 pieces of information o­n each passenger aboard America-bound flights. The data includes credit card numbers, travel itineraries, addresses and telephone numbers.