The Dutch EU presidency gave member states two options: that service operators retain the information that they would gather anyway for commercial purposes or go beyond that to keep a list of specific data – as yet to be defined.

Despite opposition by Germany and others for data privacy reasons, the second option has been chosen.

Dutch Justice Minister Piet Donner said this "goes rather further and involves service providers of data communications being required to retain certain data for a certain period".

A small working group will now look into the issues surrounding such legislation – mainly cost, which will depend on the data retained, and privacy questions.

Strong concerns

The proposal has raised strong concerns.

Questions remain about how far records on the internet and text messages could be looked in to.

This will be among the issues that has to be examined.

Another issue is whether someone would be recorded simply for looking at a message that has been sent to them via the internet.

UK MEP Sarah Ludford, who is a member of the civil liberties committee in the European Parliament, said that the proposals require the retention of telecoms data "so that police or intelligence agencies can later seek access long after the data should be deleted under EU telecoms privacy law".

At their meeting, ministers also agreed a decision on the exchange of information on criminal records.

This decision, which passed quickly through Council, was prompted by the recent case of the serial killer Michel Fourniret who was able to carry out his crimes for years by exploiting the poor communication between French and Belgian authorities.

Ministers also discussed general approaches to fighting terrorism – something that will appear on the agenda of EU leaders meeting in Brussels later this month.