Some Visa-waiver countries in the European Union (EU) could soon be issuing passports and visas with implanted computer chips chock full of eye scans or digital fingerprints, under a plan that the EU reportedly adopted.

The EU action doesn't commit members to an implementation deadline, but Congress mandated that visa-waiver countries--including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom--go biometric with their passports by Oct. 26, 2004.

The EU plan commits about $164 million to studying which biometric option is optimal because it said "a coherent approach is needed on biometric identifiers." In May, the International Civil Aviation Organization selected computerized facial recognition as the best-suited biometric method for identifying air travelers worldwide.

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