ATLANTA - The United States began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from most countries on Monday in a controversial program to try to prevent potential terrorists from slipping in through the borders.

The program was launched at 115 airports and 14 cruise ship ports across the country, but not yet at land borders, which account for a large part of traffic into the United States.

Tourists and business travelers on short visits from 27 mostly European nations are exempt from the new measures. Canadians, who fall under special immigration rules, are also exempt.

Some foreign nationals have complained of discrimination and Brazil last week began fingerprinting and photographing all arriving U.S. citizens.

Federal officials said the measures, which were ordered by Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 hijacked plane attacks, would tighten security without causing any undue inconvenience to travelers.

"It is easy for travelers to use, but hard for terrorists to avoid," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told a news conference at Atlanta's international airport shortly after the system began

Ridge greeted and shook hands with the first travelers to be processed in Atlanta under the US-Visit system.

Atlanta's airport is said by officials there to be the world's busiest passenger airport, with an average of 2,400 flights arriving and departing daily.

The new fingerprinting and photographing program is meant to identify people who have violated immigration controls, have criminal records or belong to groups listed as terrorist organizations by the United States.

At Miami International Airport, which receives a large part of passenger traffic from Latin America and the Caribbean, passengers interviewed after going through the process said they had no problem with the screening, and took no offense.

"I think it's good with everything that's going on," said Scott Murray, a Jamaican arriving at the airport. "If you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't be a problem. I wasn't offended.

"It took not even a minute, it was left and right index finger on the machine and they take a picture too."

But the Brazilian fingerprint program of U.S. visitors that began last Thursday came on the orders of a judge who angrily compared the new U.S. controls to Nazi horrors.

"I consider the act absolutely brutal, threatening human rights, violating human dignity, xenophobic and worthy of the worst horrors committed by the Nazis," said Federal Judge Julier Sebastiao da Silva in a court order to authorize the program in Brazil.

Additional reporting by Jim Loney in Miami

Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd

###