The e-passports include smart cards containing the holder's personal information and a biometric identifier, and will first be issued in a district of Paris. Their use will be extended to citizens in the rest of France by the end of May, Axalto said.

'By delivering these new e-passports to the French government, Imprimerie Nationale has been especially responsive in implementing the new technologies required for a modern administrative France,' said Loic Lenoir de la Cochetiere, Chairman and CEO of Imprimerie Nationale SA.

The new travel documents use Axalto's e-passport technology, Axseal -- a highly secure operating system with encryption algorithms that work on a contactless chip incorporated into the passport's cover, the company said. In addition to the identity information contained on the first page of the document, the chip features the passport holder's digitized photo, Axalto said.

'You have an electronic copy inside a chip that can't be tampered with or altered and the access to it is controlled with various security mechanisms so the privacy of the passport holder is maintained,' said Neville Pattinson, Axalto's director of Technology & Government Affairs.

Under the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, visitors from 27 mostly European countries, including France, need biometric data encoded in their passport if it was issued after October 2005 and they want to travel to the U.S. without a visa, Pattinson said. By the end of October, all countries in the visa-waiver program must produce chip-enabled, biometrically enhanced passports, Pattinson said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will install document readers that read the e-passports at United States ports of entry.