STOCKHOLM, November 11, 2010 (AFP) - Sweden's government wants an EU-backed law obliging telecom and Internet operators to store traffic information for at least six months, Justice Minister Beatrice Ask said Thursday.

The European Commission has filed a complaint against Sweden for not yet complying with the 2006 EU directive on data retention, and Ask said she hoped the draft law would help the Scandinavian country avoid massive fines.

The government proposal would require all operators to store information on subscribers, including whom they contact, how long the conversation lasts and their location at the time, for at least six month.

"But the contents of the communications will not be permitted to be stored," Ask told reporters in Stockholm, adding that only police investigating "serious crimes" would have access to the information.

"Such information is very useful in crimes fighting," she said.

Sweden had been dragging its feet on the matter due to concern over how storing traffic data would impact on privacy.

"It has been important for us to create adequate protection for personal integrity," Ask said, pointing out that the government was proposing "the shortest possible storage time permitted by the directive."

It had also decided that while operators, and ultimately consumers, would have to foot the bill for the storage, police would need to pay each time they requested access to the information.

"There is always a risk that people will ask for information they don't really need. We are trying to limit that problem by making them pay for the information," Ask told AFP on the sidelines of the press conference.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's centre-right coalition had also been working on several other closely-connected proposals to strengthen integrity protections that they had wanted to present at the same time as Thursday's bill, but had not finished them on time.

"There is no ceiling" for the amount Sweden could be forced to pay, Ask told AFP, adding "so we had to react now (on the data retention law), even though we are dealing with difficult questions."