AUGUSTA – Maine Army National Guard officials still were waiting for word from Washington on Monday about how they might assist with staffing and vehicle inspections along the U.S.-Canada border.

“We were made aware of a possible mission last Thursday night,” said Col. Mark Gilbert, Guard chief of staff at Camp Keyes in Augusta, when reached by phone Monday afternoon.

“We don’t know how many people, for what duration or for how long,” he said, adding that Guard officials were preparing for when that information is made available.

Attorney General John Ashcroft indicated on a Sunday news show that several hundred National Guard members and helicopters would be deployed at U.S.-Canada border crossings to assist U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors.

Ashcroft said the move was in response to delays caused by beefed-up inspections of vehicles entering the country. In some cases, the extra time needed for inspections has caused considerable delays.

Security along the U.S.-Canada border has been tightened following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Additional INS inspectors were moved to northern border points to assist with inspections.

Despite the extra help, the passage of auto parts and other goods has been slowed at some ports of entry, affecting the trade partnership between the two nations, which is considered the world’s largest at about $1.3 billion a day.

In conjunction with Ashcroft’s announcement Sunday, the Justice Department reported an initial deployment of about 420 National Guard troops to 43 land, sea and airports of entry along the border with Canada. The department, however, was not specific about which ports.

In Detroit on Monday morning, Ashcroft said the United States and Canada have agreed on a plan designed to keep terrorists out of both countries and secure the flow of trade goods.

“The United States and Canada have a very important mutual mission and responsibility to undertake,” Ashcroft said.

The purpose of the agreement, to be signed later Monday in Ottawa, is to “keep our common border secure and accessible,” said Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Herbert Gray.

Elements of the program include expanding integrated border enforcement teams, adding Canadian officials to the U.S. foreign terrorist tracking task force and tightening the visa entry process.

“There were a lot of things in the congestion around the border that hurt both nations,” Ashcroft said. “We don’t want to be shutting down our automotive industry because we don’t have a fast enough inspection process.”

Maine shares a 611-mile border with Canada – the longest of any state in the continental United States – much of it through forest, with only a 10-foot strip of cleared land and granite markers to indicate where the line is.

There are about 20 land checkpoints in Maine along its border with Quebec and New Brunswick, in addition to others at airports and seaports.

Like the National Guard, INS officials in Maine also had not received details Monday as to what would be taking place at the state’s border checkpoints.

“We haven’t received any kind of word yet,” said Paul Morris, INS deputy district director at Portland.

“There are no details; no information yet,” he said. “It takes a while to trickle down from the top.”

While there have been reports of significant delays at some ports of entry along other northern border states, there were no signs of congestion Monday at some of Maine’s busier ports in Calais, Houlton and Madawaska.

In early October, Gov. Angus King proposed that troops be sent to some of Maine’s border stations to help ease congestion by assisting with inspections.

Like Ashcroft, King was concerned over the impact border delays could have on commerce between the two countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.