More Armed Guards on Us Flights

Travellers to the US can expect further delays and heightened scrutiny under plans to put 5,000 more armed guards on US commercial flights.

Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary, unveiled a programme to combine air marshals and customs and immigration agents into a central pool, where officials from each service will be retrained to double up on tasks.

The job sharing plan follows reports that the homeland security department planned to cut air marshals to save money. Mr Ridge said the reorganisation was to free up more officers during a time of heightened threat with more rigorous inspections of suspect travellers.

The measures are the latest in a series of changes to procedures at US airports and border crossings after the September 11 attacks. The changes, which require fingerprinting of visitors from Muslim and Arab countries, have been criticised by civil rights organisations.