TEHRAN, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- Iran has passed a law that requires related governmental departments to inspect and fingerprint all U.S. nationals upon arrival in Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.

    The Guardian Council, which has the authority to vet all bills to determine their compatibility with rules of Islam and the Constitution before they become law, has approved the legislation, the council's spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei said.

    Iran's Majlis, or parliament, approved on Nov. 19 the bill despite President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's opposition to it. The Guardian Council met on Nov. 22 to discuss the bill and "found it neither against Islamic sharia or the Constitution," Kadkhodaei was quoted by IRNA as saying.

    Now all U.S. nationals before entering the country at any of its entry points or when applying for visas must be finger printed in consistency with what is done to Iranians wishing to enter the U.S. territory, the spokesman said.

    The legislation was considered as a retaliation to the U.S. requirement that Iranian visitors be fingerprinted. After the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States has implemented the measure on Iran and some other countries.

    However, President Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki opposed the bill, saying that the Iranian government was not against ordinary Americans.