Politicians are pandering to fears rather than improving security by pushing for the expanded use of body scanners at airports, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said last week in Rome.

"I don't think European authorities should introduce body scanners, certainly not on domestic flights," the chief of Europe's largest discount carrier said. "We need effective, efficient security, not these kind of measures that are designed by politicians to pander to people's fears."

The US is pressing the European Union to follow its lead in ramping up airport security and expand the use of body scanners, after a failed terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.

Britain and the Netherlands have installed the scanners, and France and Italy have agreed to try them out, while Germany and Spain have expressed reservations.

"I am not sure body scanners will have any effect on eliminating the risk of terrorist attacks," O'Leary said. "They seem to be the typical overreaction by politicians and bureaucrats who are desperate to be seen doing something."

The EU will move closer to deciding whether its airports should install body scanners to fight terrorism by early April, when EU regulators aim to finish a study on the effects on travellers' privacy and health.

The European Commission is evaluating the merits of using body-scanning equipment made by such companies as the UK's Smiths Group and New York-based L-3 Communications Holdings.

Matthias Ruete, the commission's director general for transport, told EU lawmakers recently in Brussels that the assessment would be completed at the end of March or in early April.

The EU is seeking a common approach to the use of body scanners after the failed terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.

The UK has conducted trials of such equipment and France said earlier this month it would start testing the technology.

"There is a danger that member states go it alone," Ruete told the European Parliament's transport committee last week.

The study will be followed by commission consultations with lawmakers and then draft regulations by August, he said. (Bloomberg)