WASHINGTON — The federal government is keeping an eye on Vancouver's Olympic Games to ensure they don't pose any greater human trafficking dangers than any other major event, Canada's public safety minister said Tuesday.

"We have not seen any evidence of any special human trafficking plans that organized crime, say, might be utilizing around the Olympics, but it is a focus of our attention," said Peter Van Loan, flanked by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after a top-level meeting about border security attended by both the U.S. and Canadian ambassadors.

"My view is that human trafficking is not a problem only at the Olympics, it's a problem for Canada at all times at special events ... we're working with local police on the range of those issues."

Numerous human rights groups have been warning for years that the Vancouver Games could result in women being forced into prostitution by organized crime keen to profit from the sea of visitors who will flood into the Vancouver area in February.

There have been several campaigns by various social welfare groups in Vancouver, including the Salvation Army, to raise awareness about human trafficking and warn of the potential increase in the sex trade that can often go hand-in-hand with major international sporting events.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged to quell a surge in violence in Vancouver in time for the Games. His government unveiled stiffer penalties for gangland crimes in February.

Not everyone is convinced, however. A recent report by a Vancouver sex-trade group suggested the oft-repeated claims of a connection between human trafficking rings and major international events like the Olympics are little more than conjecture.

"In relation to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, public statements have been made which project an alarming increase in this human trafficking," said the report, released this past summer by the Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group.

"These claims are inconsistent with the evidence in this research document, that trafficking and mega-events are not linked."

Nonetheless, Napolitano said the U.S. is providing security help to Canada as the Olympics approach, predicting the Games are "going to be a fabulous event."

"There's a very large, supportive operation in the U.S. to support Canada in the security of the Olympics," she said.

"We want to make sure on the south side of the border that people are going to be able to move through the point of entry, that sort of thing, and at the law enforcement level, information is being shared with the Canadians who are hosting the Olympics."

Napolitano and Van Loan have met several times since May, when the homeland security secretary travelled to Canada to discuss ways to ensure the Canada-U.S. border was secure without drastically hindering trade and travel.

On Tuesday, Napolitano announced the U.S. would be joining a biometric data-sharing initiative with Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. The program would allow governments to crack down on fraudulent refugee claimants by using fingerprinting and other methods to get details about identity, nationality, travel and immigration history.

The initiative will prevent "terrorists and criminals from crossing our shared borders," Napolitano said. She also assured a news conference that the U.S. was "firmly committed to protecting privacy and civil rights."

"The chief privacy officer in the United States is travelling to Canada in early December to further those discussions," she said.

Van Loan said Canadians have no reason to fear their personal information will be shared with U.S. officials, saying the program is aimed primarily at refugee claimants.

"The biometric information sharing is relating to refugee claimants and the refugee situation and some removals -- it's more immigration-related," he said. "The objective of it is to share information on refugee claimants."

The biometrics announcement was one of a series of moves both countries are making to tackle common threats, both Napolitano and Van Loan said.

Key measures include enhanced information sharing between the U.S. and Canada, the expansion of joint law enforcement operations and improved co-ordination during emergencies.

Napolitano skirted the question when asked if U.S. concerns about the Canadian border were escalating given two recent high-profile terrorism arrests in the United States with Canadian connections.

"That is why Minister Van Loan and I continue to meet together to discuss how the border is a secure border, and ... remains a safe border that facilitates the considerable trade in commerce and tourism that goes back and forth between our two countries," she said.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian who lives in the U.S., was arrested last month along with another Chicago resident, David Coleman Headley, on accusations of plotting to attack on a Danish newspaper for publishing cartoons in 2005 depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The FBI has since alleged that Rana, 48, and Headley, 49, were in contact with the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the Indian government blames for last November's terrorist attacks in Mumbai that left 166 dead and 308 wounded.

In September, 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi was arrested in Denver and accused of plotting to blow up targets in New York in what has been billed as biggest U.S. terrorist attack since 9-11. Zazi, who has family living near Toronto, travelled twice to Canada in the months prior to his arrest.