NCIS, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, is calling for Internet cafés to check and record the ID of all customers.

The proposal comes in the wake of Soho nailbomber David Copeland downloading instructions on bomb making from Web cafés.

NCIS says it's not a formal proposal - they are merely suggesting it and would certainly approve of if it happened. An NCIS spokeswoman said the decision would "ultimately be a commercial one for the cafés" which is nonsense, but the crime busters are happily piling on the pressure by mentioning the idea at any media event its people are appearing at.

According to analysts Forrester Research, Internet users who are online from locations other than home account for ten per cent of all European consumers. ®