Passengers on route to the United States will face tougher screening measures from today.

The United States department of homeland security is rolling out a series of new techniques it says are aimed at reducing the threat of hidden explosives.

These measures include enhanced screening of passengers and electronic devices at airports around the world.

The measures apply to all commercial flights into the US, the department of homeland Security said in a statement.

As many as 2,000 commercial flights a day from more than 100 countries land in America, with tens of thousands of passengers potentially impacted.

The new measures replace a ban on laptops in airline cabin baggage that was implemented earlier this year.

That ban, prompted by fears that terrorists could hide a bomb inside a laptop computer, affected eight predominantly-Muslim countries which the US government.

However, it was later phased out.

The new measures could include short security interviews with passengers at check-in or the boarding gate, airlines say.