EU transport ministers are expected to approve Monday the creation of a new credit-card style EU driving licence, to replace some 100 different documents currently used by Europe's motorists.

After being held up for over two years, the European Union's Austrian presidency has finally resolved differences between EU governments, to open the way for accord at a regular meeting in Brussels, EU sources say.

The EU directive, or law, is also expected to establish the principle of an EU licence for motorbikes, including a document covering only progressive access to the most powerful two-wheeled machines.

The European Commission proposed the new licence to prevent fraud and make security checks easier, but also to simplify life for ordinary Europeans moving between EU states and facing varying rules for renewal of documentation.

They will also crack down on so-called "driving licence tourism," in which people who have had their licence taken away in one EU state, for example due to repeated offences, can move to another state and apply for one there.

Procedures and tests to obtain a driving licence will remain different in each EU member state under the draft rules being considered Monday.

But they will introduce a common document in all EU states: a credit-card style and counterfeit-proof plastic licence including, for countries who want it, a microchip to make it computer-readable.

Under the current proposal, the permit would be renewable in principle every 10 years, although that can be extended to 15 years for countries wishing to do so.

Such renewal periods are already in place in some EU countries, but not all. In Germany and Austria, the country where opposition to the project was the strongest, licences are valid for an unlimited period.

The idea of having to renew the document is not to verify motorists' ability to drive in terms of health, but to ensure that personal data, notably a photo of the licence holder, is up to date, officials insist.

Initially the EU planned to introduce the new system only for new licences, arguing that it would cost too much to replace all existing licences with the new EU-standard type.

But after negotiations, all motorists in EU countries will have to have one of the new licences by 2032 at the latest. This transition date and the terms for renewing the document were the last points to be resolved.

The European Parliament, which shares responsibility for such issues with EU governments, has already voted on the proposals.

Austria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of June, has for several weeks made clear that it wants to push ahead with the decision.

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has also made the EU driving licence one of his main priorities, arguing it is a key tool in clamping down on road accidents which killed 40,000 people in the EU last year.

If EU ministers approve the measure Monday it would then have to be approved by EU lawmakers in a second reading, and would be expected to enter into force by the end of the year.