Brussels, 25/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - US vice-secretary for internal security, James Loy, signed an agreement in Brussels on Friday with the director general of the Greek customs services, Vassilios Manolopoulos, whereby Greece may join the Container Safety Initiative. This means Greece authorises a team of US customs officials to arrive at the port of Pyrrhus in mid-July, a month ahead of the Olympics, to carry out checks on freight containers headed for the United States to ensure they are not a terrorist threat. James Loy said that the US Congress and Senate were still discussing the additional time period allowed to countries benefiting from visa exemptions to allow them to provide citizens with biometric passports. The US administration has suggested two years, a deadline of November 2006, and the Senate is reportedly 'willing' to accept this, but the Chamber of Representatives wants a single year respite. The 9 June Justice and Home Affairs Council confirmed its objective of providing biometric passports at the end of 2005 and has agreed to the compulsory inclusion of a digital photo and the optional inclusion of fingerprints. Loy said he would have preferred it if fingerprints had been made compulsory, seeing fingerprints as more important than digital photos.