Britain’s plans to launch the world’s most ambitious biometric identity cards cleared their first hurdle this week, despite the first revolt against Prime Minister Tony Blair since his re-election. His government’s 66-seat majority in the lower house was cut to 31 when lawmakers voted to in favor of the cards, designed to counter terrorism, crime and illegal immigration.

Despite the setback for Blair, who was returned to office with a reduced majority on May 5, the proposals will continue their long journey to becoming law. If accepted, it would be the first time Britons have carried ID cards since they were abolished after World War II by the government of Winston Churchill. Critics, who say cards are expensive, unnecessary and intrusive, fear they would eventually become compulsory. The cards would use biometric technology in fingerprint, face and iris recognition.

Neil Fisher, director of security and intelligence at British technology group QinetiQ, said many other countries were watching the British progress. “Nobody has ever undertaken an identity card system with this complexity before, using three biometrics...” he told Reuters. “America in particular is watching us with close interest and I think if we do go forward with this and we get it right, it will be a model for many people to follow.”

<B>ID Challenge</B>

The opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties say they will vote against the cards. “We can see no benefits, huge costs and a serious risk to civil liberties and privacy,” Conservative shadow Home Secretary David Davis said on Tuesday. Although Blair’s House of Commons majority was reduced in May’s election, and some of his Labour members of parliament may vote against in protest, political analysts do not expect the plan to be rejected.

A study on Monday said the cost of the scheme could soar to 19 billion pounds ($35 billion) – three times official estimates – but Blair dismissed it as wildly exaggerated. Voluntary cards would not be introduced before 2008 at the earliest and they would not be made compulsory before 2013, and only then if parliament agrees, the government says. ID cards are used in about a dozen EU countries, although they are not always compulsory and do not carry as much data.Tuesday’s vote was the start of a long parliamentary process which will see the bill debated many times.

<B>Kate HOLTON</B>

HOSTAGE

<B>Family appeals for body of slain hostage</B>

■ The family of a Briton, taken hostage and beheaded by insurgents in Iraq, have revealed they received two videos from the militants during his captivity and appealed for the return of his body for a formal burial.The two private videos of 62-year-old Ken Bigley were relayed to his family through an intermediary in Baghdad during the three weeks he was held hostage last year by kidnappers led by Iraq’s al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. “We received some private videos that were channelled through the embassy in Baghdad and through the Foreign Office and to ourselves,” his brother Phil said in comments to BBC’s Panorama programme released on Wednesday.The first video showed Bigley looking relaxed and clean shaven, vastly different to the “terror videos” released by the militants to TV networks which showed him wearing an orange jumpsuit, chained and squatting in a cage. However the second video showed the construction engineer looking terrified and pleading for his life. “It switched everything round and it brought us full circle again,” Phil Bigley said. “This was more of a definite horror and a reality that there’s no way out of this, there’s absolutely no way out.” And the Foreign Office asked if we’d want to respond to that and I can recall that we sat and decided what more can we say? How many times can you beg?” On the programme, the first time they have spoken about their ordeal, they said they just wanted Bigley’s body back.” The sad part is, we haven’t had a burial,” his mother Lil said.