Washington, Aug 23, SPA -- The apparent thwarting of a plan to blow up airplanes crossing the Atlantic has convinced U.S. and European officials that more detailed checks of airline passengers are necessary to detect threats. Officials on both sides of the Atlantic believe current screening, which involves checking passengers’ names against a terrorist watch list, should be enhanced with credit card information, e-mail addresses and hotel reservations. Officials are hoping to access a database known as the Passenger Name Record, created by global travel reservation services. It lists the names of travelers, details on cars or hotels, credit card information, contact information for the passengers and their relatives, and even intimate details such as what type of bed they prefer. U.S. officials already have access to the database under a 2004 agreement with Europe that expires this September. U.S. counterparts do not have that access because of European privacy laws. Both sides are expected to renew the 2004 agreement. U.S. Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff has said said he would like to revise the agreement, ensuring an expanded ability to search the data for links to terrorism.“Ideally, I would like to know, did Mohamed Atta get his ticket paid on the same credit card,” Chertoff said in a New York Times newspaper interview, referring to the lead hijacker in the September 11, 2001 attacks.“That would be a huge thing. And I really would like to know that in advance, because that would allow us to identify an unknown terrorist,” he said. A spokesman for the vice president of the European Commission Franco Frattini said the commissioner plans to propose that European governments also have access to the Passenger Name Record database.“It is not going to solve all our problems,” said spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing. “It is not going to stop terrorism. But you need a very comprehensive policy.”--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/384473