Same-day car travel from the United States to Canada fell to its lowest monthly level on record in February, dropping below the 1.2-million mark for the first time, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

"In addition, the estimated 1.1 million overnight trips taken by American residents to Canada was the lowest monthly level in almost nine years," the government agency reported on Thursday.

"Overall, only 2.4 million American residents took trips to Canada in February, down 2.3 per cent from the month before and the lowest month on record since May 1979."

Meanwhile, Canadian residents set a new record for trips abroad with 547,000 travelling overseas in February, which represented a 1.5 per cent gain from January, the third consecutive monthly increase.

But it appears Canadians were more reluctant to travel south of the border, as they made fewer than 3.2 million trips to the United States during February, down 7.1 per cent from January.

Similarly, the number of same-day car trips by Canadians fell 8.0 per cent to just under 1.9 million, the lowest level since June last year.

In addition, they made fewer than 1.3 million trips of one night or more, a drop of 5.7 per cent.

The report was released as Canadian authorities express their concerns over Washington's plans to require secure identification requirements for cross-border travellers by 2007.

Politicians and travel industry stakeholders say they fear ID requirements will deter casual cross-border travel and hinder trade between the two allies.

Although Canadians travelled abroad in record numbers in February, the same could not be said for overseas visitors to Canada.

The number of visitors from overseas countries to Canada dropped 3.3 per cent to about 369,000, its lowest level in more than a year.

Furthermore, travel from nine of Canada's top 12 overseas markets fell in February.

The largest decline was recorded by Mexico at -9 per cent while travel from the biggest market, the United Kingdom, was down 6.5 per cent.

However, the number of visitors from Hong Kong saw an increase of 9.3 per cent, the largest gain among Canada's most important overseas markets.

Though Statistics Canada didn't provide analysis for the numbers, it noted that the Canadian dollar was worth 87.0 US cents on average in February, up 0.7 per cent compared to January. The loonie also rose against the euro, British pound sterling and Japanese yen.