Biometric passports will make terrorists' mobility extremely difficult, said Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee Wednesday at an international conference on terrorism in Southeast Asia held in Singapore.

"Mobility is a critical requirement for the capability development and operations of global and regional jihadist terrorist groups," Ho said, adding that biometric passports will help promote border control security.

Noting that such passports can also facilitate timely detection of suspects after an incident, Ho urged governments in the world to enhance international inter-operability of biometric passports.

Singapore unveiled the design and security features of its first biometric passport at the end of last month and will issue the high-tech passport from this August.

The minister said that Singapore is studying ways to enhance its ability to track lost and stolen passports, which can be forged and used by terrorists and criminals to travel between countries, and will share such information with foreign security agencies.

In February this year, Singapore hinted that it was planning to subscribe to the International Criminal Police Organization's ( Interpol) database of lost and stolen passports in the following months.

The database contains details of more than 10 million lost and stolen passports as well as other travel documents.

Source: Xinhua