Biometric testing is set to be introduced at European airports as part of stringent new security measures revealed yesterday in the wake of last week's alleged terror plot.

Passengers would have their fingerprint or iris scanned under the measures proposed by EU interior ministers, which would also use passenger profiling to try to identify potential terrorists.

The move to beef up relaxed security procedures in Europe came as John Reid, the Home Secretary, warned human rights would have to be balanced against the threat from terrorism.

Other measures agreed in the wake of last week's terror threat include a commitment to stamping out radicalism by stricter policing of the internet, replacing extremism with a "European" model of Islam, a 250 million research project into liquid explosives and a meeting of security services across Europe this month.

The plan to extend biometric procedures - already enforced in the United States, Canada and Australia - to Europe comes after Mr Reid held talks with ministers from five other European countries. He said Europe would not allow terrorists to undermine the "common European values that bind our societies together".

The proponents of terror "would abuse our open societies, would misuse our freedoms and adapt the latest technology to their evil intent and have no regard for human life or for human rights".

Mr Reid signalled that people would have to give up some of their liberties. "As we face the threat of mass murder we have to accept that the rights of the individual that we enjoy must, and will be, balanced with the collective right of security and the protection of life and limb that our citizens demand."