The trial has been welcomed by the Home Office

The Chip and Pin technology - being piloted by 600 businesses in Northampton - is designed to cut credit card fraud.

Customers using their cards insert personal identity numbers (Pins) when buying, instead of signing a receipt.

Despite some teething problems, three quarters of people questioned in a survey said they were willing to adopt it across the UK.

Now, Hazel Blears, Home Office minister for crime reduction, said: "The first public trial of Chip and Pin in Northampton has provided excellent results and I am encouraged that the lessons learnt in the trial will be taken forward as the scheme is rolled out across the country.

A similar scheme in France has reduced fraud

"As well as fighting fraud, Chip and Pin has proved to be an efficient, secure and consumer-friendly system."

About 150,000 people took part in the trial of the so-called Chip and Pin cards which began in May in Northampton.

About 83% of people who took part in the trial, which involved more than 200,000 cards being used in 1,000 outlets including Asda, Tesco, Next and Marks and Spencer, said they were in favour of the new scheme being introduced.

Preventing skimming

The British Retail Consortium, which was involved in the trial, called on retailers who had the equipment to accept payments from the new cards to start using it as soon as possible.

The initiative is expected to reduce credit and debit card fraud in the UK, which reached �424.6m during 2002, by up to 70%.

It should help prevent skimming, when the information on a card is illegally copied and used to create a counterfeit card, and make it harder for lost or stolen cards to be used.