There may be a change in the requirement for all US citizens to have a passport in order to enter the US from Bermuda. The directive came last week from American President George Bush.

Recent legislation aimed at tightening controls of the US borders saw a change in the long-standing policy which did not require American nationals to have a passport to return home from Bermuda.

The change in policy also affected travel between the US and Canada, Mexico, Caribbean and Panama. Additionally citizens of these countries were required to show passports for entry to the US.

But President Bush recently told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that he felt the new policy may be cumbersome and disturb the honest flow of traffic in and out of the country.

Associated Press reports that Mr. Bush told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and officials from the Department of Homeland Security to see if more flexibility could be exercised.

He told the American Society of Newspaper Editors that this flexibility might include electronic fingerprint imaging ?to serve as a so-called passport for daily traffic? to help speed up the process.

The new rules were called for in intelligence legislation that Congress passed last year.

An estimated 60 million Americans have passports ? about 20 percent of the American population.

Mr. Bush has proposed immigration-liberalisation legislation that would establish a guest-worker programme.