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Prime Minister Gordon Brown has given the go-ahead for full body scanners to be introduced at Britain's airports. BAA, which runs six UK airports, said it would now install the machines "as soon as is practical" at Heathrow. Experts have questioned the scanners' effectiveness at detecting the type of bomb allegedly used on Christmas Day in an attempted plane attack over Detroit. But Mr Brown said it was essential to "go further" than the current technology allowed. Speaking on BBC One's Andrew Marr show, the prime minister said the government would do everything in its power to tighten security and prevent a repeat of the US attack. Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is now in custody, is accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a plane bound for the US. Mr Brown said travellers would see the "gradual" introduction of the use of full body scanners and hand luggage checks for traces of explosives. He added transit passengers as well as transfer passengers would undergo these checks. Currently, not everyone has to pass through full body scanners already introduced at some major airports overseas - particularly if they are in transit from another country - due to concerns about cost and time delays. A spokesman for BAA said: "It is our view that a combination of technology, intelligences and passenger profiling will help build a more robust defence against the unpredictable and changing nature of the terrorist threat to aviation." He said nothing had been decided yet on exactly which passengers would undergo the full body scans. And he declined to give specific details about timing or comment on extending the use of scanners to other airports, costs or the potential for passenger delays.