Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has revealed that students are to be the first group targeted by the government's identity card scheme.

The first compulsory ID cards issued in the UK for 60 years are to be distributed to all foreign nationals originating from outside the European Economic Area from 25 November.

The government aims to roll out the baby blue and pale pink cards initially to foreign students and married people renewing their residence visas, with Home Office officials expecting more than 90 percent of foreign nationals to be in possession of a card by 2015.

The design of the £30 cards will feature a rose, thistle, shamrock and daffodil—flowers representing the four countries of the UK—as well as a rampaging bull, a symbol of the European Union. Data held on the card will include the person's picture, date of birth, town and country of birth and details about their rights to work and claim benefits in the UK.

Biometric data will also be held on the cards in the form of the person's fingerprints.

Ms Smith has stated that ID cards will replace as many as 50 separate paper documents that foreign nationals must currently hold in order to study or work in the UK. At the unveiling of the card design last Thursday, Ms Smith said: "We all want to see our borders more secure and human trafficking, organised immigration crime, illegal working and benefit fraud tackled.

"ID cards will make it easier for employers and sponsors to check entitlement to work and study and for the UK Border Agency to verify someone's identity."

However, many foreign students remain unconvinced by the scheme. Amanda Green, an American 4th year English Literature and Language student at the University of Edinburgh, told The Journal: "The government is using a group of people who can't say no to ID cards as a way of intoroducing a new program that is widely disputed and disagreed with already. It's reminiscent of Big Brother and I think it is unfair that they're giving us the ultimatum, 'Get it or get out.'"

The cards, dubbed by the Conservatives as an "expensive white elephant", will become compulsory for all airside airport workers and employees in other "sensitive" areas of the UK economy from 2009. Ultimately, ID cards will be available to all UK citizens from 2010.

The Liberal Democrats have also been scathing about the cards with home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne saying: "The government has gone wobbly-kneed about rolling this out to anyone with a vote. This is the thin end of the wedge. It does not matter how fancy the design of ID cards is, they remain a grotesque intrusion on the liberty of the British people.

"The government is using vulnerable members of our society, like foreign nationals who do not have the vote, as guinea pigs for a deeply unpopular and unworkable policy."