<div><p>OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada plans to introduce full-body scanners at all its major international airports to tighten security after the failed attack last month on a U.S.-bound plane, the government said on Tuesday.</p><p>The scanners, which see through clothing, will go into nine airports, including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, starting this month, and will be used for now only on U.S.-bound flights, officials said.</p><p>Passengers will be given a choice between going through the scanners or being subjected to a full-body physical search, Transport Minister John Baird told a news conference in Ottawa.</p><p>"I think for many Canadians the idea of going through an electronic machine is far more comfortable and less invasive," Baird told reporters.</p><p>Deployment of the new scanning equipment was requested by the United States, but Canada was still talking with Washington to clarify what, if any, additional security measures might be required.</p><p>Canada has not decided if it will follow the U.S. lead and require all air travelers from 14 countries deemed to be "state sponsors of terrorism" to undergo additional screening, a Transport Canada spokesman said.</p><p>Baird said the government was also studying using security personnel trained to detect behavioral characteristics that would indicate a passenger is a potential security risk.</p><p>Baird said Ottawa was aware the tighter security could cause problems for the airline industry, so it was talking with industry officials about the financial impact of the measures.</p><p>Canada will purchase 44 of the scanning units. It tested the technology in a 2008 trial at a small airport in Kelowna, British Columbia.</p><p>A survey found that 95 percent of the passengers who underwent the scan preferred it to a physical search, said Rob Merrifield, Canada's minister of state for transport.</p><p>Britain, the Netherlands and Nigeria are among other countries introducing scanners. Canada has a particularly large number of flights to the United States, and passengers even clear U.S. customs at the larger Canadian airports.</p><p>Civil liberties groups have raised privacy concerns about the scanners, which effectively allow security services to look at an image of a nude body.</p><p>The images would not be stored or transmitted and personnel viewing them would be in a separate room with no contact with the person being scanned, to satisfy privacy concerns, Baird and Merrifield said.</p><p>The new equipment and scanning requirements will be deployed as Vancouver International Airport is set to handle a crush of additional travelers coming to the Winter Olympics in February.</p><p>Airport officials were not available for comment on what impact the changes will have on Olympic operations.</p><p>(Additional reporting from Allan Dowd in Vancouver; editing by Peter Galloway)</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=66300907&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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