Yard calls for tighter border controls

Senior police sources are calling for the return of stringent border checks on the millions of foreign travellers who enter and leave Britain every year unrecorded.

Scotland Yard's most senior experienced officers are understood to be pressing the Home Secretary to introduce a US-style system of landing and embarkation cards to improve national security against the threat of terrorism.

They accept that determined terrorists will still find ways around checks using forged passports, but despite the huge commitment the system would involve in manpower and investment, they believe that knowing who enters and leaves this country will significantly strengthen their hand in the struggle against terrorism-Home Secretary David Blunkett last night told MPS he is attracted to the idea but has concerns about how a workable system could be devised.

A senior police source said: "Embarkation and landing cards would be helpful, so we know who is arriving and who is leaving. The comparison is being drawn with America, where they have a much better picture of who is coming in and out of their country."

Labour abandoned routine checks on people leaving the UK three years ago, as ministers claimed the system was an "expensive fiction" which failed to properly record the movements of 90 million travellers comingin and out of Britain each year. Critics said the move was inspired by immigration service cutbacks.

Mr Blunkett told the influential Home Affairs Select Committee last night there were also doubts about creating a system which "provides credibility". He said he would deal with questions around embarkation checks in the coming weeks in a statement to Parliament.

His comments came after committee chairman Chris Mullin told him: "It has been argued that scrapping the routine embarkation checks has made it easier for terrorists to move in and out of Britain."