'Amend Schengen against terrorism'

(ANSA) - Brussels, January 29 - European Union interior ministers have proposed amending the Schengen Treaty that created Europe's passport-free zone to combat the threat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, sources said Thursday.
    "This is a necessary step to strengthen (our) outer borders, allowing for systematic checks (using) databases containing (terrorism) risk indicators," the ministers said in the Latvian capital of Riga.
    Also on Thursday, sources said the European Commission has adopted "new measures" and "technically updated" the Schengen Information System (SIS) governmental database to speed up the exchange of information on terror suspects.
    The changes do not affect the Schengen Treaty per se, the sources said.