Brussels/Washington, 10/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - Encouraged by fears of new terrorists arriving in their land, the US is planning to make the citizens of three Member States apply for visas for visiting the US, namely Italy, Belgium and Portugal, whose citizens are currently exempt from visa requirements for visits of three months or less. The draft law has been initialled by Congress and is already being examined by the State Department, but a decision is not expected in the immediate future, indicate sources in Brussels. After the concerned voiced by the Danish Presidency at the JHA Council in July 2002,the European Commission stressed that if exemptions for short stays were scrapped, US citizens should also have to give up their exceptional status and the EU would automatically impose visa requirements on them under Council regulation 539/2001.