France adopts a series of anti-terrorism measures

France's on Wednesday adopted a series of strengthened anti-terrorism measures that give police the right to search car trunks and grant investigators greater access to phone conversations and Internet exchanges.

The measures, which will be in effect until the end of 2003, were adopted in reaction to the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Some politicians, notably the Greens and Communists, say they are an attack on civil liberties, but the plan's supporters say that dramatic action was needed.

"There is a `before Sept. 11' and an `after Sept. 11,'" Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant told lawmakers. "The size of the attacks and the new form they took made our societies realize that no one was safe from terrorist attacks and that there is no sanctuary."

The 13 anti-terrorist measures, which were tacked on to a general bill on security, passed all hurdles in French parliament when the National Assembly adopted the package Wednesday.

One the measures allows police to search car trunks, on the instructions of a prosecutor, in terrorist probes. Traditionally cars were off-limits to police.

The amendments also allow bag-searching and frisking at places such as airports, stadiums and stores, and enable police to carry out secretive nighttime searches in storage spaces and garages during preliminary investigations. Previously, they had to wait until 6am.

The plan also allows investigative judges to demand that phone or Internet companies save wiretapped conversations and Internet data for up to a year.

In general, conservatives in the National Assembly supported the package. Communists abstained, and Greens voted against it.

"The Greens are worried that the law is useless, ineffective and an attack on individual liberties," said Green Party lawmaker Noel Mamere, the movement's candidate for next year's presidential elections.

Memories terrorist killings on French soil are still vivid. A series of attacks in 1995 -- including a bombing at the St. Michel subway station in Paris -- killed a total of 10 people and injured 180 others.

Officials that the Sept. 11 attacks could have repercussions in France and immediately put in place a broad set of anti-terrorism measures it calls "Vigipirate" to check identity papers and investigate suspicious activity.

Security been especially tight in the Paris region, where several thousand more soldiers and police were deployed. The measures adopted Wednesday complement that plan.

Even before planes crashed into the World Trade Center, French judicial authorities worried that Islamic militants were drawing up new plans for attacks on French soil.

On Sept. 10, French prosecutors began looking into an alleged plot to attack American interests in Europe, including the US Embassy in Paris. The suspected force behind the scheme was Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Nine people are in jail in the case, awaiting possible trial.