I-card for work in Britain from '08

London: All foreigners from outside the European Union (EU), including Indians, will need a British identity card to find work or claim benefits in Britain under a new scheme that comes into force from 2008, Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Writing in Monday's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Blair said the project, which also includes the introduction of national identity cards for all Britons, would help catch terrorists and combat illegal immigration.

The ID card plan, the world's most ambitious biometric scheme of its kind, has been criticised by those who say it would infringe civil liberties, others who feel it would cost too much and a third group that doubts its effectiveness.

Blair, however, said the cards and a national identity database were a step in the right direction.

"I am convinced, as are our security services, that a secure identity system will help us counter terrorism and international crime," he wrote.

"Terrorists routinely use multiple identities – up to 50 at a time – to hide and confuse. This is something al Qaeda train people at their camps to do."

He said the system would help to secure Britain's borders, with the introduction of biometric visas and residence cards. "I also want to see ID cards made compulsory for all non-EU foreign nationals looking for work and when they get a National Insurance number," Blair said.

"This will enable us, for the first time, to check accurately those coming into our country, their eligibility to work, for free hospital treatment or to claim benefits."

Blair was expected to announce at his monthly press conference later on Monday that plans for ID cards, opposed by the opposition Conservatives, were on course and on budget, the Daily Telegraph said.

Under the initiative, Britons applying for or renewing passports after 2008 would be given an ID card and their biometric details would be put on the national register.

ID cards are used in about a dozen European Union countries but are not always compulsory and do not carry as much data as those planned for Britain.