WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Inspections of electrical and other systems of older aircraft are too general and their maintenance sometimes haphazard, according to federal officials, who announced a new safety effort Thursday targeting older aircraft.

Federal Aviation Administration Chief Jane Garvey said no reasons were found to ground any aircraft, based on a review which began last year.

But she said that the FAA would implement improvements in how certain systems are inspected, repaired and documented as an aircraft ages.

"We found that the criteria in place today do not adequately address the issues posed by aging systems," Garvey said ( 374 K/21 sec. AIFF or WAV sound).

Garvey said the initiative is the result of a 1997 White House report on aviation safety, that recommended expanding the structural inspections of older aircraft to include non-structural systems.

Last year, a team of experts was formed to determine how the expansion should proceed. The team took an in-depth look at five older aircraft, including three DC-10s, one DC-9 and one B- 727, Garvey said.

The team recommended better inspection criteria for corrosion on some flight control and hydraulic components, Garvey said.

Garvey

"Some flight control components were difficult to get at. Because of that difficulty, the team found they were not getting inspected as much as we would like," she said.

The team also detected deterioration in some of the wiring bundles of the aircraft, as well as contamination of the wiring by metal shavings, dust and fluids, Garvey said.

It developed a plan to improve the safety of the aircraft systems, which includes establishing an advisory committee to oversee its implementation.

Garvey said the plan draws on the expertise of NASA, the Department of Defense, aircraft operators and manufacturers and the joint aviation authorities of Europe.

She said the initiative will begin programs to put improved practices and criteria in place, as well as establish specific completion dates.

The plan also requires aircraft manufacturers to review fuel system safety design, fuel tank maintenance practices addressing the integrity of fuel tank wiring, and ways to prevent power surges in fuel quality measuring devices.

"Next year we plan to have in place an improved system for reporting wire failures. We'll also add database to the FAA's National Aviation Safety Data Analysis Center," Garvey said.

The FAA's previous focus on maintaining the structure of older aircraft was prompted by a 1988 incident in which an Aloha Airlines 737 lost a section of its upper fuselage during flight.

But the dangers of electrical problems were highlighted by the 1996 crash of a TWA plane near New York that killed all 230 people on board when a spark touched off an explosion in the elderly Boeing 747's center fuel tank.

Efforts by the FAA and the aviation industry since that crash have uncovered problems in much younger aircraft.

Just this week, FAA lowered the threshold for inspections of Boeing 737s for abrasion of fuel pump wires to planes with as few as 20,000 hours.

The probe of the September 2 crash of a Swissair plane off the coast of Nova Scotia has also focused on a possible electrical problem. The crew reported smoke in the cockpit and power ceased altogether before the plane hit the ocean.

Garvey has promised immediate action in conjunction with more research on the wiring issue but has denied the timing of Thursday's announcement was influenced by the Swissair accident.

"The whole issue of wiring is something that people have been focused on for a while," Garvey said.

Reuters contributed to this report.