New bomb detectors have been installed at major airports and railway stations that can detect liquid explosives and check travelers' shoes for explosive devices, officials said.

The new detectors will be put to use in the near future, according to Cabinet Secretariat official Minoru Saito, who briefed reporters after a Monday meeting of the antiterrorism task force.

The move comes after Britain's intelligence agency said in November it was tracking almost 30 terrorist plots involving 1,600 suspects and had foiled five major plots since the July 2005 transit bomb attacks in London.

Authorities here have been discussing ways to boost airport checks after Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, tried to light a fuse leading to concealed plastic explosives in his sneakers on a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.

Concerns about terrorists coming into Japan have spiked since reports emerged in May 2004 that Lionel Dumont, a French citizen with suspected links to al-Qaida and a history of violent crime, repeatedly entered Japan on a fake passport.

Dumont, who was later sentenced to 30 years in prison in France, was reportedly trying to establish a terrorist cell when he lived undisturbed in Japan in 2002 and 2003.

In May, the Diet approved legislation requiring foreigners aged 16 or over to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering Japan. Under the measure, set to start by next November, immigration officials will run images of all adults through crime and terrorism databases.