Al-Qa'ida has moved its base to Asia, G8 leaders say

The al-Qa'ida terrorist network is believed to have moved its operational base to central Asia, home affairs ministers from the G8 industrial nations said yesterday.

After a meeting in Paris, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, said the organisation, headed by Osama bin Laden, still posed a real threat. He said al-Qa'ida, formerly based in Afganistan, had apparently set up new bases in the former Soviet republics of Chechnya and Georgia.

"We don't expect to lower our guard for a long time," he said. "All the G8 countries have a similar analysis. The terrorist threat is real, it's still present."

Mr Sarkozy denied that the divisions among G8 members over Iraq would hamper the group's fight against terrorism. John Ashcroft, the US Attorney General, attended yesterday's meeting, becoming one of the most senior American officials to visit Paris since tensions erupted over Iraq.

Mr Sarkozy said: "French-American co-operation never stopped, because it concerns the security of our citizens. Those disagreements [on Iraq] are real but that does not necessitate discord on the fight against terrorism."

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said the terrorist threat had not lessened. "Whilst we've ... damaged the morale of those who were able to draw on the tacit support of the regime, the network out there remains a problem."

The G8 ministers endorsed a call by Britain for their nations to use biometric data – such as fingerprints and iris scanning – to prevent the forgery of travel documents and passports. A working group will draw up proposals by the end of the year to ensure that systems used by different countries are compatible.

The ministers also agreed to set up a database containing 150,000 images of child pornography and pictures of alleged paedophiles in an attempt to improve intelligence-sharing.