(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission threatened Wednesday to take retaliatory measures against the United States from January over Washington's failure to extend visa-free travel to all EU member nations.

The commission said it would propose to the 27 countries that measures like the temporary restoration of visas for diplomats be introduced if no progress is made on broadening the US visa waiver programme.

"No tangible progress has been made regarding the US despite all efforts of the commission and individual member states. Citizens of 12 EU member states continue to require a visa when travelling to the US," a statement said.

"The commission will propose retaliatory measures, for example temporary restoration of the visa requirement for US nationals holding diplomatic and service/official passports as from January 1, 2009 if no progress is achieved."

The EU's executive body, which handles visa reciprocity issues on behalf of the member countries, noted that Washington had pledged last month to include more European states in its visa waiver programme this year.

Most older EU states are already part of the visa waiver scheme, but Greece and most of the 12 mainly ex-communist nations that have joined the bloc since 2004 are not.

US policy has been to assess each country individually, and to refuse visa-waiver status based on a number of criteria, like the number of visas which have been refused or security issues.

Frustrated at the lack of progress in talks led by the commission, some of those countries left out of the US programme have been negotiating bilateral deals.

The commission has suggested similar retaliatory measures against the United States in the past, but they were never fully endorsed by the EU member states.

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