The Swedish government is debating whether to maintain a work permit requirement for immigrants from the 10 east European countries set to join the European Union on May 1, Swedish news agency TT reported Friday.

"I foresee large problems if we don't protect ourselves, especially considering the social commitment that we have," Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson told the news agency.

The proposal to maintain work permit requirements for immigrants from the new EU countries -- at least for the time being -- is in line with the positions of fellow EU member states Germany and Austria.

But it is in stark contrast to guarantees Persson made to several of the east European states before they agreed to enter the EU that their citizens would have the same access to the Swedish labor market as those from the 15 existing EU members.

Since making that promise, however, Persson has increasingly voiced concerns that immigrants from the new EU countries could take advantage of Sweden's generous welfare system.

The fact that a number of other EU countries, including neighboring Finland, are considering introducing strict immigration restrictions on the new members had also made Persson reconsider his promise, he said.

"The situation is completely different now," Persson told TT. "Back then, only Germany and Austria were considering transition rules."

Not everyone agrees with Persson's reasoning.

"Transition rules are just as wrong now as earlier. We should welcome everyone who wants to work in Sweden and contribute to our wealth," Per Juth, assistant chief economist at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise -- a pro-business interest organization representing more than 60,000 Swedish companies -- said in a statement Friday.

Juth called for Persson to heed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's recommendation that European countries ease, not increase, immigration requirements.

"I... encourage European states to open up greater avenues for legal migration -- for skilled and unskilled workers, for family reunification and economic improvement, for temporary and permanent immigrants," Annan said in an address to the European Parliament upon receipt of the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, in Brussels on Thursday.

The 10 countries due to join the EU on May 1 are the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta and eight former Soviet Bloc states -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia.