WASHINGTON - After years of failing to overcome staunch opposition from some state officials and civil liberties groups, advocates of tighter controls on driver's licenses succeeded in getting Congress to pass the first national regulations for issuing licenses and other IDs as part of a massive intelligence overhaul President Bush signed Friday.

The little-debated rules, which are supposed to make it harder for terrorists to obtain IDs, would require licenses and state-issued ID cards to include digital photos and "machine-readable identity information" that some privacy advocates fear could be used to create a national database of personal information.

"By standardizing the driver's licenses at the federal level, what you're doing is creating a national ID card," said Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "It allows the government to essentially track you wherever you go."

Supporters of the law insist such concerns are overblown. The federal standards can be devised in a way that makes fraud more difficult while protecting privacy, they say.

"We are not establishing a national identity card," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who helped craft the intelligence bill. "What we are establishing is uniform standards for states to issue driver's licenses. It is an attempt to strike a careful balance to make sure driver's licenses are issued and used properly, but not at the expense of privacy."

While the law doesn't explicitly order the states to follow the regula-

tions, licenses and IDs that don't meet the standards will not be accepted by federal agencies for such things as boarding airplanes and getting passports. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators backed the legislation.

The issue has been debated since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks highlighted the many different procedures used by states to issue driver's licenses and other IDs, some of them more stringent than others.

Seven of the 19 hijackers, for instance, fraudulently obtained driver's licenses in Virginia by taking advantage of that state's then-lax rules for certifying their identities and addresses. Licenses are often referred to as "gateway documents" that allow people to open bank accounts, obtain credit cards, rent cars and board airplanes.

After the attacks, numerous bills were introduced in Congress to bring more uniformity to the rules for issuing licenses and IDs and the type of information they must contain about the bearer. But the bills languished in committee.

The issue was revived in July, when a national commission appointed to study the Sept. 11 attacks issued its report and recommendations. Noting the ease with which the hijackers obtained IDs, the commission said: "The federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driver's licenses."

"Fraud in identification documents is no longer just a problem of theft. At many entry points to vulnerable facilities, including gates for boarding aircraft, sources of identification are the last opportunity to ensure that people are who they say they are and to check whether they are terrorists," the commission added.

The recommendation was championed by relatives of 9/11 victims and incorporated into an intelligence overhaul based on the commission's report, which was passed by Congress earlier this month.

The law orders the secretaries of transportation and homeland security, in consultation with state officials and other "interested parties," to establish minimum standards for licenses and IDs. They will govern the type of documents that can be used by applicants to prove their identities, procedures for preventing fraud, and the type of information licenses carry.

The cards must have certain standard features, including a digital photograph and "common machine-readable identity information," which could mean swipe-card technology.

Those two requirements raise the most concerns among privacy advocates.

"The whole purpose for this standardization is going to eventually be some sort of database. It just didn't pass in this particular legislation," said the ACLU's Johnson.

The House version of the legislation called for an "interstate compact ... to provide electronic access by a state to information contained in the motor vehicle databases of all other states."

The final version of the legislation signed by Bush called for regulations that "facilitate communication between the chief driver licensing official of a state, an appropriate official of a federal agency and other relevant officials, to verify the authenticity of documents."

Durbin denied that the intent was to create a national database.

"States exchange information about their drivers. That happens today when a trooper pulls someone over for speeding. That's good law enforcement. It is not a matter of entering into a computer in Washington all the data about drivers in America. That's not my goal," Durbin said.

Johnson said the ACLU fears the federal rules will require licenses to carry data chips that can be read remotely. Such chips soon will be added to U.S. passports, and some states have considered them for driver's licenses.

"You don't even need to swipe it. They can be read up to 30 feet away," Johnson said.

Developers of the technology say the equipment required to read the information on the chips is bulky and would easily be spotted. The law requires the federal regulations to include privacy protections.

Some state officials also are wary of the new regulations, citing costs and other concerns.

"States have passed numerous laws to improve the integrity and security of driver's licenses. We are concerned about a one-size-fits-all approach," said Cheye Calvo, transportation committee director for the National Conference of State Legislatures.