Terror threat level still 'high' at 8 US airports

Announcing the lowering of the threat level Friday, after 19 days of intense nationwide security precautions, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said that the United States would however "maintain particular vigilance around some critical resources and locales."

Without giving details he said most of the increased security would involve "the private sector" and this included airlines, US media reported Saturday.

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Sources told The Washington Post those facilities included eight airports, including those in Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

A government official told USA Today privately that "certain airports as well as the cities of New York, Washington and Los Angeles will continue to have increased security."

A few of the many hundreds of dams, bridges and chemical plants that received heightened protection during the higher alert will continue to be treated with extra vigilance, USA Today quoted the official as saying.

The move signals a major departure in US strategy on internal security, in which officials "communicate quietly with local officials who need to ramp up security in specific areas" rather than issue costly blanket alerts encompassing the entire country, the Post noted.

The change reflects narrower, more "sophisticated" risk assessments concerning specific facilities, locations and types of infrastructure, homeland security sources said.

In stepping up the alert before the end-of-year holidays, Ridge had warned that Al-Qaeda could be planning an attack even more spectacular than the September 11 strikes on New York and Washington two years ago that killed about 3,000 people.

During the alert, which lasted nearly three weeks, numerous flights to the United States were cancelled, many others were delayed and some were even escorted to US airports by fighter jets.

"We are still concerned about continued threats, but the threat conditions that we've been following have diminished," Ridge told a press conference Friday.