The National Police Agency said Wednesday it will compile a database of DNA information on crime suspects for use in investigations, responding to the rising number of cases in which DNA testing is conducted, but if a suspect who has provided a sample dies, that person's sample will be deleted, NPA officials said.

The NPA plans to start using the database around August, in addition to another DNA database set up in December to store data from biological evidence, including blood and hair, found at scenes of unsolved crimes.

DNA testing has become an important method for identifying criminal suspects. The number of cases in which such testing was conducted last year has more than doubled since the previous year to 2,338, they said.

On Wednesday, a panel of six experts met for the first time to discuss the matter and agreed to form the database, officials said. They will now consider legislative measures, they said.

"We will form a database of information on the DNA type obtained legally for criminal investigations and we will not analyze anything unrelated to the investigations," an NPA official said.

Although the DNA information used for criminal investigations includes no genetic information, it is still personal information requiring strict management.

DNA information from blood and other samples taken from arrested suspects is analyzed at prefectural police force crime labs and kept at each police

There are about 2,000 items of such data in total and the NPA will put the data together to form the database, the NPA said.

The DNA information of crime victims will not be registered on the database, they said.

The database will be put under strict control and only NPA personnel in charge of the information will be allowed access to it.

Police will be obliged to delete a DNA sample from the database once it becomes unnecessary for investigative purposes, for example, in the case of a suspect's death, they said.

The database allows police to conduct online cross-referencing of DNA samples obtained from evidence, such as hair, blood and other body fluids, to pin down a suspect, similar to fingerprint cross-referencing.

But the agency had not included in the database DNA data from blood and other samples taken from arrested suspects for reasons of privacy.