The German government wants all foreigners who hold non-European Union passports to carry an electronic identity card that has the holder's residency permit and status filed onto it, according to Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning.

Foreigners must already carry their passports -- which have residency permits inside them -- with them at all times in Germany. Asylum seekers without documentation carry separate cards.

The new document will be issued as a separate card to all non-EU foreigners living here. People from other EU countries with permanent residency in Germany are not required to show carry their residence permits on their persons and will not be issued the new cards.

Fingerprints and photos

The identity card will have digital photos of the bearer as well as their fingerprints and will be able to be scanned through a machine that can read the biometric chips.

"We want to be able to greater increase our ability to identify people with this card, exactly as we are doing with identity cards for Germans," said Hanning, referring to a parallel initiative by the government to issue all Germans digital identity cards.

Hanning said the European Union would issue a directive late this year or in early 2007 on electronic identity cards.

"We'll be among the first in Europe to put it into effect," he said.

Since November 2005, German has issued 2 million digitalized passports. The new identity cards should be ready by 2008.

Officials are hopeful that the cards will help them to better increase security, something increasingly pressing since two Arab students tried to blow up German trains in August.

"The chip will certainly create more hurdles for those up to no good," said Hanning. "And it will help us against forgeries."