Brussels, 05/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - In Berlin on Thursday, US Secretary of State Michael Chertoff said that agreement over the transfer of air passenger information (PNR, see EUROPE 9401) would facilitate the search for a solution to the full visa reciprocity issue. If agreed to, this deal would provide the US with a tool whereby they could continue to have access to a large amount of information about air passengers flying to the United States, and would enable the EU to end what it sees as discrimination because 12 EU member states are still excluded from the Visa Waiver Program in the US (see EUROPE 9380 and 9381). At the EU-United States ministerial troika meeting in Berlin on Thursday 5 April, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble, EU Commissioner Franco Frattini and Michael Chertoff were confident that agreement could be struck on PNR in the next few months. Schauble said agreement had already been reached on the principle of proportionality in the collected data and the issue would be settled by interior ministers themselves, not requiring examination at the EU-United States summit in Washington on 30 April. Chertoff said that the United States would be able to apply the same level of data protection as in the EU. On terrorism, the talks focussed on radicalisation and recruitment of potential terrorists in prison, mosques and online. (bc)