Armed marshals to fly on Australia-US planes
Armed sky marshals will be placed on flights between Australia and the United States under an agreement expected to be signed early next year.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison said in Canberra the Australian and US governments had been negotiating the issue for several months.
The move comes after Australia and Singapore finalised a deal on December 15 to place armed officers on flights between the two countries. The officers have been on random flights since Saturday.
Australia began posting armed undercover security officers randomly on domestic flights soon after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.
Meanwhile, armed elite intervention teams dressed in civilian clothes have been travelling on some flights from France to the United States for the past week, a newspaper reported.
The decision to place two to six members of the so-called GIGN aboard certain sensitive flights was made on December 22, and the plan was put in motion a day later, according to the daily Liberation. The paper quoted sources close to Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.
