U.S. homeland security chief to meet European counterparts on aviation security

WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that she was to meet with her European counterparts to tighten international aviation security measures and standards.

"Later this month, I will be traveling to Spain to meet with my European counterparts for what will be the first in a series of meetings with counterparts that I believe will lead to a broad consensus on new international aviation security standards and procedures," Napolitano told a White House briefing.

President Barack Obama took responsibility for the government's failure to stop the attempted Christmas plane bombing plot and announced a series of steps the administration was taking to make the country safer.

Napolitano said she would undertake the discussions with foreign officials because "security measures abroad affect our security here at home."

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, managed to smuggle explosives on a plane from Holland's Amsterdam to Detroit, and almost succeeded in bringing the airliner down.

During the last several days, top officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had been on a multi-country, multi-continent mission, meeting with top transportation and airport officials and discussing ways to boost cooperation and security, Napolitano said.

She also announced other measures, including re-evaluation and modification of the criteria and process used to create the terror watch lists, development of new and more effective aviation screening technologies through a partnership between the DHS and the Department of Energy and its national laboratories.

Napolitano said the department was to accelerate deployment of advanced imaging technology, which would increase the current 40 machines deployed throughout the country to 300 in 2010.

The United States also planned to strengthen the presence and capacity of aviation law enforcement and increase the number of federal air marshals, the secretary added.