U.S. officials are considering scrapping a plan that originally would have required all foreign visitors to meet biometric passport requirements.

An anonymous source told The Associated Press that the Department of Homeland Security is reconsidering previous standards that require a traveler entering the U.S. – including someone from an allied country – to carry a passport with a digital photograph that matches his or her unique physical characteristics, such as a fingerprint. An embedded identification chip was to be added later, as the technology became more readily available.

The original biometric passport standards were put into effect in 2002. Visitors from 27 allied nations, who are not required to apply for a visa to enter the U.S., would have had to carry the passport under the law.

The biometric requirements were set to go into effect in October 2005; however, AP reported that DHS will most likely scale back the requirements until negotiations can be reached with allied nations on how to safely and effectively add biometrics to the passports.

Part of the delay involves technical problems with the new high-tech system. The Web site engadget.com reported that a test of 10,000 citizens in Britain – where personal data is already being stored on radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips – found a high rate of failure in the technology.