Tougher airport security checks

Australia and New Zealand have pledged more co-operation in the security screening of passengers before they board planes bound for either country.

The countries will share information on passports and visas. One benefit of the exchange would be the prompt detection of attempts to use lost, stolen or forged passports when people checked in for flights.

The arrangement was signed in Auckland yesterday by Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff and his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer.

The information swap will complement the countries' advance-passenger processing system which is linked to all airlines.

Mr Goff said that since July, the system had prevented 179 people from boarding aircraft destined for New Zealand.

That figure covers the period since it became compulsory for all airlines around the world to check travel documents before allowing boarding.

In fact, the Immigration Department says more than 400 people have been intercepted since January last year when some airlines voluntarily began checks.

Mr Goff said the ability to swap travel document and visa information would give the countries a level of border-security co-operation that was as advanced as any in the world.

Mr Downer said the aviation security arrangement was the equivalent of transtasman efforts to combat crime and terrorism at sea.

Australia is to bring in a 1000 nautical mile (1850km) maritime security zone around its coast from next March.

Ships passing through the zone will have to tell the authorities details of where they are going and what cargo they are carrying.

The zone stretches in to New Zealand's exclusive economic zone and parts of its territorial waters.

But Mr Goff said this was not to be interpreted as Australia extending its jurisdiction into New Zealand waters.

Both countries were obliged to undertake the security measure by the International Maritime Organisation.