WASHINGTON: Two Virginia congressmen unveiled a bill on Wednesday that would direct states to turn their drivers licences into computerised "smartcards" which would be more difficult to forge.

Seeking to deter hijackers, criminals and underage drinkers from obtaining false identity cards, Democratic Rep. Jim Moran and Republican Rep. Tom Davis introduced a bill that would establish standard security features for the state-issued cards.

The bill joins several other efforts already under way to beef up drivers-licence security, an issue that has taken on increased urgency after it was found that eight of the 19 hijackers who slammed planes into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on Sept 11 had used assumed identities.

"We think that what happened on Sept 11 makes a compelling case to do it now," Moran said.

Moran and Davis would require states to include a computer chip containing a digitised "biometric" identifier - such as  a thumb print or a retina scan - that law-enforcement officials could use to verify that a drivers' licence holder is in fact who he claims to be.

Some privacy advocates say that proposals for a beefed-up drivers' licence would lead to a de facto national ID card that could create a detailed profile of citizens and visitors. - Reuters