The US Coast Guard said on Friday this measure is being taken because these vessels' compliance with new international port security standards that took effect on 1 July is "below average".
The other flag States whose vessels will be targeted for increased inspections are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Honduras, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Panama, Russia, Singapore and Thailand.
Moreover, ships which have recently called in ports at another 17 countries will be inspected more frequently because of these countries' failure to confirm that their ports meet the new security standards.
The countries are Albania, Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kiribati, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nauru, Nigeria, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands and Suriname.
Adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in December 2002 as part of the 1974 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), the new standards require every ship to have a security officer, an alarm system, access restrictions to the engine room and bridge and checking the identification of people who come aboard.
Such standards are fairly minimal given the vulnerability of ports to attack and their importance to global trade, counter-
terror experts quoted by the Associated Press said.
The independent commission in the US that investigated the 11 September attacks said current efforts to protect the nation's 361 ports from terrorists were inadequate.
In a recently released addendum to its original report, the 11th September commission said the US Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Coast Guard, should "bolster efforts to identify, track and screen suspicious cargo entering the country from foreign ports".
The commission also said the department should make sure that enough shipping containers are chosen at random for screening "to deter the gaming of targeted screening systems."
At present, only a very small percentage of shipping containers is opened and inspected in the US.
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