The United States may ease the visa regime for a group of countries before the Bush administration leaves office in two years' time, a senior US government official said on Wednesday.

Paul Rosenzweig, acting assistant secretary for international affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, spoke to reporters after conferring in Prague with representatives of the countries in the so-called Road Map.

The discussions taking place include Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Greece and South Korea.

"My personal time horizon ends with the end of Mr. Bush's term in January 2009. My personal hope is to see new entrants into the visa waiver program prior to that," Rosenzweig told reporters.

He specified that the United States will hold negotiations with each country separately.

"There is no intent to link or condition the visa waiver travel on the provision of anything other than the explicit security enhancements that will become a part of the whole (visa system)," he said.

A proposal to this effect has been tabled to the Congress, meant to benefit the United States partners in the war on terror. In case the Congress approves the suggested reforms, the program will include several supplementary security issues but will eventually offer the possibility to travel to the US to all citizens in the countries that meet those elements.

The proposal does not name the beneficiary countries, but Czech media say the Czech Republic and Slovakia will certainly be among them.

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