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KUALA LUMPUR, Friday (AFP) As the US wrestles with the implications of increased spying on individuals in the fight against terrorism, one Asian country has pioneered a controversial path -- a "smart" identity card.

Malaysia this month introduced "Mykad", which electronically wraps identity, citizenship, digital thumbprints and other personal details into a compulsory piece of plastic the size of an ordinary credit card.

While the card has been accepted without opposition in Malaysia, plans to impose anything similar in Western countries such as the United States could provoke an outcry over the possible erosion of civil liberties.

But the war the United States has declared on terrorism has echoes of a James Bond film in which some shadowy arch-fiend and his cohorts hold the world to ransom -- and technological gadgetry could spring from the screen into everyday lives as the terror attacks did last week.

"A lot of governments including the US will be looking at better identification systems to monitor the movement of people within their countries after last week's terror attacks," said Wan Mohamad Ariffin, smart-card project director at Malaysia's National Registration Department.

"We are willing to share our technology. It could be part of the solution to the security issue."

"Mykad" is in effect a microcomputer. The key features are an intelligent circuit chip, biometrics and encryption technology.

Biometrics measure individuals' unique physical or behavioural characteristics to authenticate their identity. "Mykad" uses two -- the face and fingerprints.

Under ultraviolet light, an image of the cardholder's face appears on the card. It also has a hologram of Malaysia's national flower, the hibiscus, and "latent tags" that expose tampering with or duplication of the card.

The card carries no actual thumbprints, but Wan said it has "fingerprint minutiae" that calculate digital points of the thumb. A thumb scanner would then be able to match prints.

"It may be difficult to get the Americans to register and to ink their thumbprints because it is not a norm for them," Wan said, but defended the card against charges of invasion of privacy.

"Apart from the name and address of the cardholder, all other data is protected and can only be accessed through a card reader available only to enforcement officers," he told AFP.

"MyKad" is touted by the government as the "world's first multi-application" card and uses local technology as Malaysia presses ahead with plans to be a major IT producer.

There are plans to expand the use of the card to include security access to homes and offices, and to pay for public transportation and tolls.

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said that Malaysia is "quite far ahead" in the production of the smart card and many Gulf countries such as Bahrain and Jordan have expressed interest, along with Singapore.

Wan says cultural differences are a key factor in whether Western countries will adopt the system. Every Malaysian citizen over the age of 12 carried a paper national identity card containing their thumbprints long before the smart card existed.

In the US, companies engaged in biometrics have reported increased interest in their products in the wake of the terror attacks, while civil libertarians have warned against a rush to any solution that erodes freedoms.

The Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, Richard Gephardt, said Americans "need to find a new balance between freedom and security and that's going to be hard to do.

"We will not give up our freedom, we will not be defeated as to the basic values and ideas that underlie this country."

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