WELSH scientists have developed a groundbreaking fingerprinting technique that can reveal lifestyle secrets and help trap terrorists.

The new technology allows police to understand details such as a person's age and whether they smoke or take drugs, simply from their fingerprint. It also allows them to take samples from previously untestable materials such as exploded bombs and bullets.

Experts say the technology - announced yesterday on the day the Government launched the FBI-style Serious Organised Crime Agency - is a "massive step forward" in the war on terror and crime.

Despite years of research by the CIA and the FBI, scientists have been unable to extract fingerprints from used gun cartridges and detonated bombs because they dissolve at high temperatures.

But now Professor Neil McMurray and his team at the University of Wales, Swansea, have developed a technique that allows them to take prints from surfaces that have been exposed to temperatures as high as 600C. Gun cartridges and bombs normally heat to temperatures of around 500C.

Advances by fellow scientist Dr Sue Jickells, of King's College London, mean fingerprints can also give clues about their owner's lifestyle. She said, "They will tell you something about the sort of population you're looking for."