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US Ambassador in Ghana, Mr Gene Cretz, has appealed to government to strengthen the capacity of security personnel bearing in mind the country's present position in the global oil and gas industry. Mr Cretz made the appeal on Friday when he visited the Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, in Accra on Friday. Their discussions centered on further strengthening relations between Ghana and the US, and also issues including terrorism and narcotics and said there is the need for Ghana to build strong surveillance systems to outwit potential drug traffickers and potential terrorists. Mr Cretz said the two countries had collaborated well over the years and the US is committed to further consolidating these gains by helping Ghana to strengthen its broader control systems for national security. The Ambassador said the US is interested in supporting Ghana to provide security, particularly in marine policing, because of the oil industry and appealed to Ghana to raise a high bar against terrorism and other criminal activities such as human and drug trafficking and the US will give its support. For his part, the Minister of the Interior says Ghana is aware of the emerging acts of terrorism and increases in narcotics trade in the sub-region and has put in place security measures to deal with the situation. He said the country needs support in the area of training for the security services, particularly personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service and Police, and plans to build an ultramodern security academy for the training of all security personnel had to be abandoned due to budget constraints. Mr. Ahwoi request assistance from the US to replace obsolete security equipment including surveillance cameras at the Kotoka International Airport and the borders to combat drug trafficking and other illegal activities.