VIENNA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The interior ministers of European Union (EU) member states and southern European states signed an agreement on the expansion of police cooperation in the Western Balkans at a conference here on Thursday.

The "Prum Convention" agreement, which seeks to boost cross-border police cooperation, has now been expanded to the Western Balkans states of Albania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia, according to an Austria Press Agency report.

It includes the capacity for police authorities from other countries to have access to things such as DNA and fingerprint information, as well as vehicle registration information.

Austrian interior minister Herbert Kickl, who is leading the two-day conference, described the expansion as a "milestone," saying it will aid the fight against organized crime, terrorism, extremism, and people smuggling.

Kickl noted that it was the exchange of DNA information as part of the Prum Convention that brought authorities on the trail of the perpetrators of the November 2015 terror attacks in the French capital Paris.