Washington ? The government said Thursday it would demand new data on international cargo shipments as a way of thwarting terrorist attacks on the United States.

The new rules from the Department of Homeland Security will require shippers moving goods into or out of the country to provide details about the cargo before it arrives at the borders.

Federal inspectors will use the information to target possibly dangerous cargo arriving by plane, train, ship or truck for inspection without slowing trade.

“The days of a truck or cargo ship arriving unannounced at our borders is over,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said.

The rules will require shipping manifests to be filed electronically with customs officials. The information will be compared with law enforcement and commercial databases to determine whether the cargo is high-risk. The vast amount of cargo, however, won’t be physically inspected.

Among the facts to be evaluated are where the cargo is coming from, where it’s going and who sent it, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Thursday.

Maritime shipping into the nation’s ports already was using such advance manifests. But there has been no such requirement for most cargo shipped into the country by trucks, trains and airliners. Some shippers provide the information to customs, but it’s voluntary and often incomplete.

Cargo declarations traditionally have arrived on paper with the shipments, giving customs officials faced with a crunch of traffic little time to evaluate them. The plan is part of the government’s effort to make the country safer by detecting high-risk items before they make it into the country.