The US appears no closer to lifting visas on citizens of 12 European Union member states, Bulgaria among them, after top-level talks in Washington, DC.

Visa-free travel was one of the issues on the agenda of the summit, attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US President George W. Bush and EU Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso. Germany currently holds the rotating presidency of the bloc.

In a joint statement released by the White House after the end of talks, the sides said merely that "progress has been made on the question of improving the freedom of movement of people between our two continents."

"We aim at swift progress in achieving visa-free travel for all EU citizens to the United States consistent with the U.S. proposal to strengthen the security of its Visa Waiver Program and accelerate the expansion of visa-free travel, which is an important step forward in facilitating travel between the United States and Europe," according to the statement.

US citizens need no visas for any of the union's 27 member states, but Washington has been slow to reciprocate on the issue.

A bill that opens the way for a visa waiver program for US partners in the war on terror, which includes the majority of EU's member states in Eastern Europe, cleared the Senate floor in March.

And just last week a top US diplomat said that visa restrictions could be lifted by the year's end, but that has not stopped seven Eastern European countries from hiring a lobbying firm to speed the process.

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