Secretary General Ronald K. Noble (left) holds up a copy of the DNA Gateway Charter signed by Stuart Hyde, Assistant Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police (UK).

The United Kingdom has become the second country to adopt the charter governing automated access to INTERPOL's database of DNA profiles. The UK, with the world's largest database of DNA profiles, will now begin sharing data with INTERPOL through the automated DNA Gateway.

A representative of the UK police formally signed the agreement during the INTERPOL International DNA Users' Conference for Investigative Officers from 16-18 November at the INTERPOL General Secretariat in Lyon, France.

Member countries must agree to the charter in order to use and access the DNA Gateway, which requires stringent privacy and security safeguards because of its automated nature.

The first country to adopt the charter, Austria, recently submitted 40,000 profiles to the INTERPOL database, which resulted in 49 potential matches.

DNA profiles are numerically coded sets of genetic markers unique to every individual. Comparing profiles within a database creates the opportunity for person-to-person or person-to-scene matches with no previous connections or helps with the identification of missing persons and unidentified bodies.

Of the 40 countries with national DNA profile databases, 33 currently submit records to INTERPOL. There have so far been 53 matches involving five countries from the 54,000 profiles in the INTERPOL database.

The charter stipulates that member countries retain ownership of their data and control its use and access in accordance with their national laws. The DNA Gateway is an autonomous database, meaning it is not linked to INTERPOL's other databases and submitted profiles do not contain any nominal information on individuals.

INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble praised the UK's signing of the charter.

'The importance of the INTERPOL DNA Gateway cannot be understated,' Mr Noble said during his welcome address. 'As member countries deal with data protection issues, INTERPOL provides the perfect international platform for data transfer and match.'

The use of DNA profiles in disaster victim identification was a focal point of discussions at the Lyon conference, having taken on new prominence since the tsunami in Southeast Asia last December. The disaster brought together teams from more than 35 countries to assist with the identification of victims from 60 countries.

More than 100 investigators from 44 countries participated in the conference. Other agenda items included DNA profiling technology, the use of DNA in police investigations, international co-operation and related legislation.