Ice precursors to become harder to obtain

States and territories plan to make it harder for drug gangs to acquire the chemicals and equipment needed to make ice and other dangerous drugs.

Justice Minister Michael Keenan said the state and territory justice ministers agreed to harmonise laws for precursor chemicals, the compounds used to cook amphetamines.

Mr Keenan said this would produce a nationally consistent list of precursor chemicals and equipment.

"This will create a uniform, national framework to harden the chemical industry against infiltration by organised crime groups," he said in a statement.

The ministers, who met in Melbourne on Friday, also agreed to build a national electronic end-user declaration system.

That will allow police to track sales of precursor chemicals across the country in real time. This database will be hosted by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

Mr Keenan said the Department of Immigration and Border Protection and policing agencies will strengthen their relationship to improve information sharing about high-risk precursor chemicals arriving in Australia.