European Union ministers are heading for a showdown with the European Commission over how long data traffic records can be retained, if at all. Ministers have also failed to agree on how commercial email is distributed.

They recently gave the green light to plans that effectively hijack the Commission's proposals on retaining traffic data records, in order to placate enforcement authorities' demands that such records be retained for a number of years.

However, the Commission is fiercely opposed to the plans and said that it would lobby hard to have its original position adopted, which states that only records needed for billing purposes be retained.

Police claim that retaining all records is a necessary measure in the fight against cybercrime, but data protection experts say it is an unacceptable breach of privacy.

The UK's own National Hi-Tech Crime Unit is so stretched for resources that it has so far recruited only 27 of its full roster of 43 officers.