ST. LOUIS -- A regional electronic database enabling federal, state and local law enforcers in parts of Missouri and Illinois is a "revolutionary" information-sharing tool in fighting and preventing crime in post-Sept. 11 America, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday.

The Gateway Information Sharing Project, a pilot initiative that Ashcroft believes eventually will be expanded nationwide, will merge investigative information and reports from participating agencies into a computerized warehouse they all can search.

Using the secured network, investigators and analysts can scour records for names, addresses, phone numbers, scars and tattoos, vehicles and phrases to see whether there are ties to crimes and investigations elsewhere.

An example: A telephone number found by St. Louis police in the pocket of an arrested drug suspect can be punched into the computer, which yields up the name of a previously convicted heroin dealer mentioned in an Illinois agency's reports.

Such searches will take just seconds -- not months, as has often been the case -- under the effort that marks the first time that the FBI has entered records into a data warehouse with investigative data from local and state law enforcers.

The project, funded by a 1997 federal grant, should be fully operational within two months, officials said.

"This revolutionary system will enable investigators to identify intelligence gaps and to see tangible links between seemingly unrelated investigations," Ashcroft said in unveiling the initiative in the FBI's St. Louis base.

Miriam Miquelon, Gruender's counterpart in southern Illinois, said the project "makes 'real time' law enforcement a reality" with technology enabling authorities at all levels "to make swift threat assessments and expedite apprehension of criminals."

So far, Mokwa said, about 370,000 documents from the FBI, Illinois State Police and the St. Louis Police Department have been entered into the database. The Missouri Highway Patrol, St. Louis County police and St. Clair County, Ill., authorities will add documents eventually.