US President George Bush signed into law a measure that in part allows expansion of a visa waiver program (VWP) to allies, including some of the countries in eastern Europe.

The countries are namely Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic and South Korea.

The Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 eases one of the key requirements in adding a foreign country to the VWP by raising the permissible visa refusal rate to 10 percent from 3 percent.

Nationals from countries in the program can visit US territory for up to 90 days without visas. European countries account for most of the nations in the VWP, and no additions have been made since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Three countries, South Korea, the Czech Republic and Estonia, maintain a consistent visa refusal rate of under 10 percent.

President Bush welcomed steps to modernize the VWP and said he will work with the Congress "to advance our security and foreign policy objectives by allowing greater flexibility to bring some of our closest allies into the program."

The legislation requires that the US first have a monitoring system in place that can verify the departure of at least 97 percent of foreigners from US airports, as well as an electronic travel authorization system.

Officials expect these steps to be completed by mid-2008.

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