Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge on Friday called for a new international standard for putting biometric data such as fingerprints on passports, and said the technology could play a vital role in combating terrorism. Ridge said in a speech at the London School of Economics and Political Science that the international community had made great strides in cooperating to tackle terrorism, but more needed to be done. "Common international standards of biometrics must be developed. In my view, the sooner, the better," he said. Biometrics include face-recognition technology and fingerprint and iris scanning.