Convicted sex offenders will have to provide police with up-to-date addresses and identifying marks such as tattoos under a national sex offender registry announced Wednesday.

"The intent of the legislation is to make streets safer, to give police better investigative tools to deal with crime and sex offenders in the streets," Solicitor General Wayne Easter said after emerging from a meeting of provincial and territorial justice ministers.

Draft legislation and changes to the Criminal Code are expected to be presented to Parliament by the end of December.

Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says he believes the format presented to the provincial ministers will satisfy concerns involving the Charter of Rights as well as confidentiality.

It will require anyone convicted of a sexual offence to register their address with police within 15 days of being released from jail or prison. They must re-register annually and any time they change addresses.

Offenders must also provide current information such as telephone numbers, aliases, identifying marks or tattoos.

The new system will work through a new category on Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) computer database. That database is only accessible by accredited law enforcement agencies.

The new tool will aid police in sex crime investigations by identifying possible suspects known to live near an offence.

The plan was applauded by the provinces, which have long pushed for such a registry.

Ontario's public security minister said federal officials are looking to see how information about the 5,000 sex offenders on his province's registry - the only one in the country - could be included in the federal system.

"We have some very dangerous folks in our federal system who should be part of this registry," said Bob Runciman.

"This is going to have a significant impact in terms of improving public safety right across the country. Certainly it's had an impact in Ontario."

Ontario's sex offender registry has operated for several years without a successful constitutional challenge. Ontario is also looking for an expansion of legislation allowing DNA samples to be taken from violent criminals.

Easter said he was open to adding photographs and geographic mapping to the computer system.

Ottawa will contribute $2 million to establish the registry. Local jurisdictions will be responsible for putting the data into the federal system and enforcing any registration provisions.