WASHINGTON – Americans’ fingerprints should be added to their passports, outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Thomas Ridge said yesterday, hoping to include the United States in a growing global security standard but risking a privacy fight at home.

Mr. Ridge said passports could ideally include biometric finger scans – for all 10 fingers – to help customs officials quickly and accurately identify American travelers. He offered no details on how the plan might deal with privacy concerns or guard against international identity theft.

“If we’re going to ask the rest of the world to put fingerprints on their passports, we ought to put our fingerprints on our passports,” Mr. Ridge said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies before heading overseas to talk about security ties with the European Union.

“Now, culturally, historically, there are a lot of reasons that some countries are averse or very reluctant to give people finger scans,” Mr. Ridge said. He said that by offering assurances that use would be limited and benefits would be significant, “we could get the world to move more quickly toward a common international standard.”

The department has no immediate proposal to add fingerprints to American passports, spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said. Mr. Ridge is scheduled to step down February 1.

The American government began fingerprinting and photographing visitors from other counties – including staunch allies – after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Most nations cautiously supported the added scrutiny, but Brazil last year retaliated by fingerprinting and photographing arriving Americans, delaying their travel for hours.

Including Americans’ fingerprints on their passports is also a subject of debate within the U.S. government. The State Department will begin issuing new electronic, or biometric, passports within a few months, containing a microchip holding a citizen’s name, birth date, and photo. But while the chip will be able to include fingerprints, none are planned at this point.

At issue is the extent the passport chips would be encrypted to prevent government snooping or identity theft. The Bush administration has so far resisted encrypting digital passport information, which could prevent international customs officials from reading the data.