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Visitors to the United States - not including Canadians, at least initially - will need to fill out online forms with personal biographical details at least three days before they arrive, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced yesterday.

The new rules - the latest in a long series since 19 al-Qaeda operatives slipped undetected into the United States and staged the horrific multiple suicide hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001 - are designed to track and intercept terrorists and others on American watch lists.

They will go into effect Jan. 12, 2009.