TIRANA, Albania-Interior Minister Bujar Nishani says the government has chosen a French company to produce new biometric passports and identity cards for Albania.

Nishani says Paris-based Sagem Securite will start producing ID cards and new passports within the next six months.

The company was chosen from among seven companies bidding in an international tender.

No new ID cards have been produced for Albanians since the fall of communism in 1990 because of problems with the country's civil registry.

Biometric passports are part of Albanian efforts to adopt standards of the international community and the European Union, which it hopes to join eventually.