By James Vicini

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) said on Wednesday as many as 100,000 visitors a year will be fingerprinted, photographed and registered in an anti-terrorism effort that has outraged Arab and immigration groups who say Middle Eastern men will be targeted.

Photos Reuters Photo Audio/Video Ashcroft Announces New Scrutiny for 'High-Risk' U.S. Visitors - (Yahoo! Finance Vision)

He told a news conference the government was invoking a little-used law from the early 1950s and applying it to countries identified as having the highest risk for terrorism.

"Today I am announcing the National Security Entry/Exit Registration System," Ashcroft said. "This system will expand substantially America's scrutiny of those foreign visitors who may pose a national security concern and enter our country. And it will provide a vital line of defense in the war against terrorism."

The change was prompted by concern about the lack of records on tourists, students and other foreign visitors after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites), Ashcroft said.

All 19 hijackers entered the country on valid visas but several stayed beyond the expiration date.

Ashcroft's announcement drew instant condemnation.

The plan "smacks of the sort of tactics" used by totalitarian regimes like Iraq, said Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum.

"Hundreds of thousands of people are going to have to register with the authorities. I just find it galling. It will alienate a lot of people," he said.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a policy group, agreed, saying the change would add to an already overburdened process and would fail to help improve security.

He said it was adopted despite concerns from the State Department and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He called it a political initiative designed to send the message the administration was "doing something" about terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) criticized Ashcroft's latest measures as "discriminatory" and likely ineffective.

"The Bush administration is, step by step, isolating Muslim and Arab communities both in the eyes of the government and the American people," said Timothy Edgar of the ACLU. "This latest move needs to be seen in the larger context of all the actions targeted at people of Middle Eastern descent since Sept. 11."

LATEST COUNTERTERROR PLAN

U.S. officials acknowledged there would be complaints the plan amounted to a form of profiling because it targeted mainly Middle Eastern men, but said the measure was necessary after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It was the latest counterterrorism plan from Ashcroft to spark criticism from civil liberties groups and others. Last week, he gave the FBI (news - web sites) broad new powers to spy domestically at places like mosques and political rallies.

Under rules adopted in 1998, only visitors from Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan had to go through the process that includes registering with federal authorities, photographing and fingerprinting.

The new plan would expanded the scrutiny to countries identified as having the highest risk for terrorism. The officials declined to identify the nations, but acknowledged it was mainly Middle Eastern countries.

The officials estimated the change would affect about 100,000 visitors to the United States each year.

Not all visitors from the countries would have to register, officials said. They said the program was aimed at men.

The same approach was used by Ashcroft as part of the counterterrorism program announced in March to question an additional 3,000 foreign nationals who recently came to this country, most of whom came from Middle Eastern nations.

The initial list for questioning in November totaled about 5,000 men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas after Jan. 1, 2000, and have passports from countries where Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network has been present or active.

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