OTTAWA - U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States and Canada will proceed with full implementation of long-planned systems to track border entry and exit information from travellers.
The measures -- almost two years behind schedule -- are intended to help stem the flow of foreign fighters to conflicts in the Middle East.
During a news conference at the White House, Obama and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced plans to share more no-fly list information and to move ahead with planned customs pre-clearance initiatives.
For the moment, the border tracking system -- promised in 2001 as part of the perimeter security pact -- involves exchanging entry information collected from people at the land border, so that data on entry to one country serves as a record of exit from the other.
The first two phases of the program have been limited to foreign nationals and permanent residents of Canada and the United States, but not citizens of either country.
The initiative was to be expanded by June 30, 2014, to include information-sharing on all travellers crossing the land border.
