NEW equipment is to be installed at Coquelles to try to stop more illegal immigrants coming through the Channel Tunnel.

Speaking during a visit to Dover today Home Secretary David Blunkett announced £9 million was being spent on new X-ray scanners to be used at various ports around the country, and more sophisticated equipment which can detect heartbeats inside vehicles is also being trialled at Dover and Coquelles.

The machines work by placing up to four brass sensors, connected to a touch-screen computer, on the frame of a stationary vehicle, and they can detect any heartbeat whether it belongs to a human, animal or even a bird.

Mr Blunkett said these developments, in conjunction with improved CCTV surviellance would help secure Britain's borders and detect people trying to enter the country illegally.

But he is pressing ahead with proposals to impose £2,000 penalties on Eurotunnel for every illegal immigrant they bring into the country.

Another 100 Immigration officers are to be employed in this area during the next year, and the Government will give extra advice and security support to Eurotunnel. "I have made clear my commitment to improving immigration control and procedures in the UK and at French ports and Coquelles," said Mr Blunkett.

"The enhancement of security checks, identification of clandestine attempts to enter the country, and improved action both to detain and remove those unauthorised to remain in the country, is a further step in the revision of overall immigration and asylum policy which I have promised."

Mr Blunkett is due to discuss these and other measures at an emergency Joint Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels tomorrow on counter-terrorism activity.