Air travellers to U.S. will have to show passports starting Jan. 23

WASHINGTON (CP) - Air travellers to the United States will officially need passports starting Jan. 23. The security measure was supposed to go into effect early in January. But U.S. officials missed a deadline to publish final details of the plan 60 days before it goes into effect.

Those will be published tomorrow, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Associated Press.

Visitors from most countries in the hemisphere are already required to show passports. But people from Canada, Bermuda and Mexico, and Americans re-entering the country have been able to use other forms of identification.

Chertoff said 90 per cent of passengers leaving from Canadian airports in September 2006 had passports.

New rules for passports at Canada-U.S. land and sea border crossings were originally supposed to kick in Jan. 1, 2008. But that deadline has been pushed back until mid-2009 after widespread complaints and difficulties creating an alternative U.S. identity card.

© The Canadian Press, 2006