French irritation over US controls on transatlantic flights was reinforced on Friday when the interior ministry revealed that American intelligence based its suspicions on passengers' surnames only.
This led to a child with a name similar to a Tunisian terrorist, a British insurance agent and an elderly Chinese woman restaurant owner being questioned by counter-terrorist police when several flights from Paris to the US were cancelled shortly before Christmas.
Three other "suspects" who were questioned were French citizens with Arab-sounding names.
All the suspects' names, supplied by the US, were found merely to be similar in sound or spelling to those of wanted al-Qaeda activists.
"The US information was followed up in every case and thoroughly investigated," an interior ministry official said.
"Unfortunately," the spokesman added, "the Americans did not supply either birthdate or first name in any of these cases, so we had to hold up all passengers and in some cases carry out lengthy inquiries into family backgrounds in case there was a link."
US agents have the right to inspect flight lists of every company in the world through computer links, a situation which has concerned France's official civil liberties watchdog, the CNIL.
On Friday it emerged that another Air France plane made an unscheduled landing in St John's, Newfoundland, on New Year's Day because of security concerns.
The plane was on its way to Paris from New York when the pilot was ordered to divert.
The jet landed without incident and the 260 passengers on board were taken off. The flight resumed about four hours later.
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