FLORENCE, Italy (AFP) - Interior ministers from the five largest western European states said they had agreed to set up a common "watch list" of terrorist suspects but they remained split over a controversial plan to create migrant holding centres in Africa.
The ministers, meeting here since Sunday, also agreed that Europe's police force Europol should be given the "central operational role" in the fight against terrorism and its funding, Italian minister Giuseppe Pisanu told reporters.
"Europol should be given the responsibility for collecting all the information which could be used operationally," he said.
"Initiatives will also be considered for a coordinated monitoring of computerised networks and to counter the use of the Internet as a terrorist propaganda tool," he said.
Pisanu said the ministers had decided that the proposed EU Counterterrorism Coordinator's mandate "will have to be better defined".
The terrorist watch list was first discussed at a previous meeting in Sheffield, England, in July, but ministers went further here Monday, agreeing for the first time to implement such cooperation systematically.
"We must have a common list of radical Muslims who have been trained in camps in Chechnya and Afghanistan. We must have a list of people who have the know-how to strike us," said French minister Dominique de Villepin.
But the ministers from the Group of Five states -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- failed to narrow differences over a joint German-Italian proposal to create migrant holding camps in north Africa.
France and Spain remain flatly opposed to the idea.
De Villepin told reporters: "I want to be crystal clear: we do not want camps or centres of any sort. It is not for Europe to put forward these activities," he said, arguing that the EU should "work in tandem" with humanitarian organisations like the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
British minister David Blunkett flew back to London at the end of the talks. But a British Home Office spokesman told AFP that London had "not opposed" the idea of transit camps. "We welcome the discussions because there is a real humanitarian problem".
"In this case we must confess we haven't found consensus yet," German minister Otto Schily told the press conference.
Instead, the ministers proposed that the EU would assist transit countries that request aid in controlling their borders and improving their ability to repatriate illegal migrants.
Pisanu stressed the G5 was not a decision-making group, but that their meetings help "to hone our positions on the big issues like the fight against terrorism, drugs and people trafficking" ahead of EU summits.
On the fight against drugs, the ministers adopted a series of proposals from the French government aimed at closing trafficking routes into Europe, by pooling technical and human resources, as well as by reinforcing Europol.
Regarding terrorism, they agreed to cooperate on sharing passenger information to track suspects entering Europe from outside the 25-member bloc.
And they said advanced biometrics would be used to ensure more secure travel documents for Europeans. These will include the use of fingerprint data on passports by 2006, as well as facial recognition and iris-scanning data.
"We have agreed to use facial imaging, and starting from 2006 there will be an obligation to include fingerprints in passports," said Alonso, who added that the new measure "would allow a better search for criminals".
"It is crucial for us to be able to identify people who move around the EU," he said.
Those measures still must be formally approved by a future EU summit, but officials here said broad agreement on the measures already exists across the union.
As part of its efforts to prevent terrorists from entering Europe, the ministers highlighted their concern about travel document standards in third countries which had visa exemptions but lacked "adequate security standards".