Paris: France wants to add as many as 23 countries to its current list of seven countries that pose a security risk as part of a raft of anti-terrorism measures, the Interior Minister said on Wednesday.
"It's obvious that we must now expand the list of countries that pose a risk. Currently, we have seven countries, and we undoubtedly need to go up to 20 or 30 countries," Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told Europe 1 radio.
Washington this month introduced new security measures for passengers flying to the United States from 14 countries, after a 23-year-old Nigerian was accused of trying to blow up a US jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a trained mechanical engineer, who had explosives sewn into his underwear, had boarded a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. He had flown to Amsterdam on a KLM flight from Lagos.
Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Mali, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen are currently on the French "watch" list of countries.
"This does not mean that these governments condone terrorism but rather that in some instances they do not have the means to combat terrorism, such as Mali," the minister said.
Hortefeux did not provide details on the other countries that could be added to the list.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, January 07, 2010, 09:57