Air passengers will now be required to take off their shoes for security checks at China's airports, as the nation steps up its measures to ensure a safe Beijing Olympic Games.

The move follows the foiling of a terror attempt aboard a flight early this month.

The shoes-off order was made on Wednesday. However, according to an online report by the Xinmin Evening News, airport authorities in Shanghai yesterday said their security procedures remained unchanged because they had not yet received official documents from China's aviation watchdog.

The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said the new rule aims to detect potential knives, explosives and other banned items carried by passengers.
The agency reminded passengers to arrive at airports two hours before their flights to allow time for the tighter security procedures.

The Kunming Airport in southwestern China's Yunnan Province, which has already adopted the new regulation, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that each passenger now takes at least 10 minutes to pass through security, compared to the previous two minutes.

The CAAC also urged international airlines to report accurate and complete passenger and cabin staff information to Chinese border control stations in a timely manner.

Required information includes name, nationality, gender, birth date, passport number and passport expiration date for the crews and passengers of international flights.

The regulation follows the banning of liquids on flights on March 13, three days after China announced it had arrested a terror suspect who smuggled gasoline on to a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Beijing.

The plot was discovered after a stewardess smelt gasoline coming from a restroom. The suspect, Guzalinur Turdi, 19, has confessed that she had plotted a terror attack, the Ministry of Public Security said yesterday, citing an initial investigation.