Key European Union members of parliament, worried about infringements of civil liberties, will decide on Thursday whether to reject a US-EU accord on handing over personal information on air passengers to fight terrorism.

The outcome of the vote is uncertain since last week's deadly bombings in Madrid may convince many lawmakers that security concerns should prevail over privacy rights.

Under the deal, still a draft, the EU executive Commission agreed to allow the handing over to Washington of passengers' personal details, such as credit card numbers, phone numbers and addresses to identify potential US-bound criminals.

Johanna Boogerd-Quaak, the member of parliament charged with the dossier in the EU Parliament, will ask the chamber's key committee on the issue to reject the deal due to a lack of safeguards that people won't mistakenly end up on a US black list.

"We have to fight against terrorism but we have to think about which is the best way to do it," Boogerd-Quack, a Dutch liberal democrat, staid ahead of the vote on Thursday by the citizens rights committee. "Police co-operation is a much better way to go about it than data sharing."

But the bombings in Spain could weigh on the minds of parliamentarians. "The events of Madrid underline the reality of security concerns," an EU official said.

Australia and Canada have also asked the EU to hand over air travellers' data, but these requests did not pose problems as both countries are seen keeping in line with EU privacy law.

Faced with the prospect of huge fines, airlines have already started transferring data to the United States.

POLITICALLY SENSITIVE

The opinion of the parliament committee will be put to a vote in the full EU assembly before the end of March.

Although parliament's opinion is non-binding, officials say the EU Commission would not be able to ignore such a strong political signal from the EU's democratically elected assembly.

If the deal was rejected, the Commission may then have to try to modify the draft agreement with the United States.

Under this deal, airlines would be permitted to grant US authorities access to their booking records, allowing the transfer of up to 34 pieces of individual data.

The US has promised to delete the most sensitive information, such as those indicating race, health or religion, but will store the rest for three and a half years.

Official EU privacy watchdogs in EU states unanimously rejected the deal in January, saying Washington had not set up a proper system of redress for travellers who were unjustly delayed or even arrested due to a data mismatch.

But EU government officials have given the green light to it. The Commission itself is drafting a proposal to start using travellers' data for aviation security.

As a further step to boost border security, the United States is also demanding that more and more countries include biometric data such as fingerprints in their passports.

(Reuters)