Ottawa — A huge database of personal information on air travellers — slammed as illegal by the federal Privacy Commissioner — will be expanded to include people who arrive in Canada on cruise ships, ferries, trains and buses, government documents say.

Customs officials will soon screen all Canadian travellers and visitors before they arrive to assess the potential risk of terrorism and other crimes, say documents obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Personal information on anyone can be kept for more than six years.

Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski has said the measure is illegal, intrusive and goes far beyond security measures adopted by Parliament in anti-terrorism legislation passed this year.

Keeping extensive data for years means it could be used for a lot more than just identifying people who merit further police checks, Mr. Radwanski said last month.

Government officials defend the plan, saying patterns are important in tracking criminals and sometimes take a long time to emerge.

Among the information that will be stored on airline travellers is all destinations, form of payment for the ticket, seat selection, number of bags and the date the booking was made.

Customs spokeswoman Collette Gentes-Hawn confirmed the government's plans, saying people on ships and trains will be checked staring next year.

Advance screening of bus and ferry travellers will be more difficult because no one has to give their name when buying a ticket. That might not start until 2004 or beyond, she said.

The data will sometimes be relayed to U.S. officials.

"We will be sharing the information under certain conditions on a need-to-know basis," said Ms. Gentes-Hawn. "We share information already."

Customs officials launched a program this month to collect data from airlines on incoming passengers so they can do background checks before the planes touch down.

"This analysis will enable our officers to identify travellers that require a higher level of scrutiny while allowing the low-risk travellers to proceed through Customs and Immigration more efficiently," the documents say.

A five-year, $20.3-million contract for collecting and maintaining the airline data went to a private company, Sita Inc., say the documents.

Canada Customs and Revenue obtained the right to get information from airlines under amendments to the Customs Act last year.

But Mr. Radwanski, who was unavailable for comment on the latest government plans, has noted that Customs promised to use the information only to identify potential terrorists or criminals and would not retain data at all in the case of most travellers — destroying it within 24 hours.

He has expressed concerns that a huge "enforcement database" could be used for all sorts of things, including income tax probes and criminal investigation "fishing expeditions."

Some civil rights groups have called the move a serious infringement of liberties.

"I don't feel we've had adequate justification of the need for it," said Philippa Lawson at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

Travel information, which has long been offered voluntarily by some airlines, has also been used in thousands of missing children's cases.

It has been employed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to apprehend at least 20 people on the FBI's most wanted list who were entering Canada, including six suspected murderers.

Mr. Radwanski, who found out about the government's plans for the database in June, says he has tried to persuade officials that the measure is unnecessary and contravenes the Privacy Act.

Some Liberals have shared his concerns about privacy, while others have complained about his aggressive stand against the measures.