Every non-EU national will have to show a British ID card to get a job once the Government's flagship scheme is up and running in 2008, Tony Blair has vowed.
They will also need the controversial items to obtain a national insurance number or claim benefits, according to the Prime Minister.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, Mr Blair clarifies that even overseas citizens resident in the UK for less than three months will require an ID card to seek employment or access public services.
The PM's staunch defence of the multi-billion pound policy comes after a report by the Government's Information Commissioner warned last week that Labour had presided over the creation of a "surveillance society".
However, Mr Blair insisted that those who argued civil liberties were being infringed were out of step with public opinion.
"It was very clear from last week's arguments about surveillance and the DNA database that the public are overwhelmingly behind CCTV being used to catch or deter hooligans, or DNA being used to track down those who have committed horrific crimes," Mr Blair wrote.
"That's what surveys suggest, too, about their position on ID cards."
Mr Blair set out why all non-EU nationals would be compelled to get an ID card and insisted: "This will enable us, for the first time, to check accurately those coming into the country, their eligibility to work, for free hospital treatment or to claim benefits."
The PM is expected to raise the issue of ID cards in his monthly press conference, and say they are on course and on budget.
Home Secretary John Reid indicated on BBC1's Sunday AM programme that measures to control "the biggest new phenomenon in the world in the last decade, which is mass migration on a massive scale" would be a centrepiece of next week's Queen's Speech.
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