(BRUSSELS) - EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini unveiled plans Tuesday to beef up the fight against terrorism, granting police new rights to check air travellers and crack down on radical Internet sites.

The package is the latest in a series of security steps that, to the increasing alarm of privacy advocates, the EU has taken in the wake of the Madrid train bombings in 2004 and the London transport attacks the following year.

The measures, which the European Union's top justice official wants to enter into effect at the end of next year once they have been endorsed by the bloc's 27 member nations, also include an action plan to limit the use of explosives.

"Terrorists will strike whenever, wherever and with whatever means to make the most impact," Frattini said, as the plans were made public in Brussels.

"We cannot be complacent, we have to continue striking the right balance between being aware of the threat and taking adequate and proportionate measures, both at European and national level, to prevent it," he said.

Under the plan, special national "units" would analyse dozens of pieces of information about travellers flying between EU countries and assess whether any passengers, including children, or crew members pose a threat to security.

The passenger name record (PNR) information -- which would be kept for 13 years -- includes addresses, ticket information and payment details and mirrors a scheme used in the United States.

In July, after months of wrangling, the EU agreed with much fanfare to hand over personal data about passengers flying to the United States for use in the US "war on terror", insisting that it had upheld European privacy concerns.

Frattini wants the same 19 fields of data -- containing more than 30 pieces of information -- to be shared with law enforcement authorities like police and customs officers potentially involved in "anti-terror" activities.

The measures would also outlaw "public provocation to commit a terrorist offence", including when violent propaganda, training tips on "terrorism tactics" and "bomb-making recipes" are posted on the Internet.

"The Internet serves ... as one of the principal boosters of the processes of radicalisation and recruitment and also serves as a source of information on terrorist means and methods, thus functioning as a 'virtual training camp'," the Commission said in a "communication on terrorism" also released Tuesday.

EU legislation dating from June 2002 would be modified to state that, in such cases: "It shall not be necessary that a terrorist offence actually be committed."

"What we are suggesting today is that those telling others how to commit acts of destruction -- with a clear terrorist intention -- should be put behind bars. Be it on the internet or in print," Frattini said.

One EU official noted that "it is very hard to secure a conviction" for incitement in general, as a lot of police resources would be needed to prove a suspect's intent.

The online civil liberties monitoring organisation Statewatch expressed concern that people might be targetted merely for voicing political opinions.

"The wording of this definition is clearly likely to result in the criminalisation of the expression of political views (for example on the situation in the Middle East ...) even if that expression does not in any way include the advocacy of terrorism to support those opinions," it said.

"This proposal could even be counter-productive, radicalising others who share those beliefs and increasing rather than decreasing the number of violent terrorists in the EU."

The European Data Protection Supervisor, Peter Hustinx, has complained that the EU's security crackdown which followed the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States has already eroded privacy rights.

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