Interior ministers from Spain, Britain, France, Germany and Italy on Tuesday announced they would create an information exchange network on suspects believed linked to international terrorism, and of a system alerting them to the theft of explosives and other sensitive material.

"We are going to exchange information on persons linked to international terrorism and who are under reasonable suspicion ... for example, people who have attended jihadist (Muslim extremist) training camps," Spanish Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso told news agencies as he and his colleagues from Britain, France, Germany and Italy wound down 24 hours of talks in the southern Spanish city of Marbella.

Internet plan

"The information the police of the five countries will share includes data pertaining to people and activities suspected of links to terrorism," Alonso said.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, German Interior Minister Otto Schily (photo) noted that part of the plan is to coordinate surveillance of the Internet.

"Unfortunately, organized criminals and terrorists also use the Internet as a method of communication," he said. "We must know what they are up to, and how they are preparing terrorist acts."

The idea is that "each country will be assured of immediately obtaining the information it requires and which another country possesses," Spain's Alonso said.

DNA, fingerprints

Such information will include, for example, the fabrication of false identity papers, stolen cars, digital fingerprint databases and results of DNA tests, as well as missing persons and unidentified corpses.

But the ministers failed to draw up a common legal framework to facilitate the expulsion of suspected terrorists who have not committed a crime in any of the five countries.

"We found that each country already has a sufficient democratic legal framework," Alonso said.

On Monday, Alonso said the forum showed the EU's determination to act decisively against the threat of terrorism and organized crime by improving the exchange of information between EU police forces -- of particular concern to many governments in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and the March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid.

G5 meetings are informal. The decisions made by the forum are not legally binding but nonetheless serve as a yardstick for EU states in general.