Europe agreed yesterday to let the US tap into banking data for terrorism probes again, reviving a programme which officials said would save lives and protect the privacy of Europeans.

The US will again have access to the banking information from August 1 after European MPs voted 484-109 in favour of a new five-year deal they say provides privacy safeguards.

The new agreement is a victory for the Parliament, which used powers it gained under the European Union's Lisbon Treaty to block an initial deal in February because of fears over privacy.

Washington was subsequently barred from seeing the bank data until a new deal was agreed.

European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Maelstrom, who negotiated the new deal, said any failure to conclude an agreement "could have had negative repercussions for EU-US cooperation in the security area and more broadly".

US President Barack Obama welcomed the deal.

"The threat of terrorism faced by the United States and the European Union continues and, with this agreement, all of our citizens will be safer," he said in a statement.

"This new, legally binding agreement reflects significant additional data privacy safeguards but still retains the effectiveness and integrity of this indispensable counterterrorism programme," he added.

European lawmakers dropped their opposition to the programme after the EU and the United States agreed a set of measures to prevent intrusions into the privacy of Europeans.