LISBON, Portugal: The European Union's borderless travel zone should be extended as far east as the frontiers with Ukraine and Belarus a week before Christmas, two weeks ahead of schedule, officials said yesterday.

Nine new member states are on track to join the so-called Schengen travel zone, abolishing all land and sea checks along their common borders, Portuguese Home Affairs Minister Rui Perreira said. Checks at airports should continue until March.

“All of the tests that we have carried out confirm that by the end of the year we will be able to remove the frontiers,” Perreira, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said at a meeting in Lisbon.

Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Czech Republic are ready to participate in the borderless program, Perreira said. Cyprus, the 10th nation to join the EU in 2004, has opted to keep some border checks for a further year.

“I think this will serve as a real incentive for citizens of the new member states to feel that they are full European citizens,” Perreira said.

The Schengen zone takes its name from the village in Luxembourg where a treaty allowing the abolition of border controls was signed in 1985.

EU justice ministers should give the final go ahead to the expansion of Schengen during their meeting on 8 November. (AP)