US to ease travel curbs for central Europeans-Bush

TALLINN, Nov 28 (Reuters) US President George Bush vowed today to work to ease travel curbs for citizens of central and eastern European countries in an immigration policy change set to please allies that have helped Washington in Iraq.

''I am pleased to announce that I am going to work with our Congress and our international partners to modify our visa waiver programme,'' Bush told a news conference during a visit to the Baltic republic of Estonia.

''It's a way to make sure that nations like Estonia qualify more quickly for the programme and at the same time strengthen the programme's security components,'' he said on the eve of a NATO summit in neighbouring Latvia.

Eight ex-communist countries that joined the European Union in 2004 have long pressed Washington to include their citizens in the visa waiver programme enjoyed by Western European states.

Polish diplomats have said it is unjust that the United States keeps strict visa requirements for Poles after Warsaw sent troops to Iraq to help topple Saddam Hussein and attempt to restore peace thereafter. The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia and Latvia have also sent troops to Iraq.

The United States does not require visas from citizens of 15 mainly longer-standing EU members, but its waiver scheme excludes Greece and the mostly ex-communist newest members, except for Slovenia.

Under current law, the United States may waive visas only when a country meets requirements such as a low rate of visa over-stayers and a visa refusal rate below 3 per cent.

Ex-communist EU newcomers are the Czech Republic, Estonia Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Bush said the legislative process to ease visa restrictions would begin soon and likely involve the modification of the 3 per cent threshold while ensuring that the new rules do not undermine US security.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, proposed in October that member states force US diplomats to apply for visas in retaliation for Washington's refusal to waive visa requirements for EU newcomers.

Under the current waiver programme, people from 27 mostly European countries can travel to the United States for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa.

Roughly 15 million visa waiver programme travellers visit the United States each year. Travel industry sources say the US economy earns between 10 billion dollar and 15 billion dollar a year from these visitors.

REUTERS SSC VV1642