US 'unlikely' to extend deadline on hi-tech visas

European visitors to the United States face having to apply for visas before they travel unless Washington extends a deadline for EU states to produce new hi-tech passports, EU officials warned yesterday.

The European Commission voiced concern after a key US lawmaker said Washington is "unlikely" to delay the deadline beyond October, despite EU appeals that it simply cannot produce the new travel documents on time.

If the target date is not put back, European travellers will from October have to go through the time-consuming process of applying in person at their nearest US embassy, the Commission said.

"We are potentially concerned and disappointed," said a spokesman for EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini, who wrote to the US Congress earlier this week seeking a delay.

Sources close to the Commission told The Times that retaliation by the EU is not being ruled out at this stage, with the possibility of visa requirements being introduced for US citizens visiting EU member states.

The Commission wants the deadline moved from October 2005 to August 2006 for all travellers to have biometric passports containing digitised facial data.

Last week, Mr Frattini wrote to the chairman of the United States House Judiciary Committee asking for the extension so that the EU would have time to put its passports in order.

But in a reply received by the Commission yesterday, James Sensenbrenner, the US Committee's chairman, warned that "such an outcome is unlikely" and asked the EU to work on the basis that it will not get an extension.

In the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, Mr Sensenbrenner says bluntly that US public concern over the risk of letting terrorists into the country makes it politically difficult for a new extension to be granted.

Only six EU member states - Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg and Sweden - are on track to include digital photographs and fingerprints in passports by October. Malta will be one of the countries not meeting the deadline imposed by the US, although this won't make a difference to Maltese citizens, who currently have to apply for a US visa anyway.

Following the September 11 attacks, the US Congress voted to require biometric passports enabling officials to match an individual's physical characteristics with a digital image in his or her passport.

Most Europeans have already been obliged since last October to have a machine-readable passport to enter the US, where digital fingerprints and facial photographs are taken on arrival.