SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The United States has withdrawn a December deadline for implementing new travel rules for Americans visiting the Caribbean, amid complaints that the measures will hurt tourism, an official said yesterday. The new rules would require Americans to show passports when returning from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean where only birth certificates or driver's licenses had been needed. The US government is reconsidering the December 31 deadline for the rules to take effect in the Caribbean, said US State Department spokesman Steve Pike. "The review of the timeline is indicative of our desire to be flexible, practical, and pragmatic and to listen to public feedback," he said. On Monday, Caribbean tourism interests welcomed a weekend announcement that the US was considering pushing back the deadline for its new passport regime, but said they were awaiting official word from the US Government. The new rules are meant to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States through the Caribbean. But regional leaders complained the measure would discourage American visitors, who made up 53 per cent of the region's 22 million visitors last year, excluding cruise ship passengers. Caribbean officials also complained Mexico and Canada would have gained an edge because Americans returning from those countries wouldn't have to show passports until December 31, 2006. That deadline has also been withdrawn, Pike said. Although the US government still plans to implement the rules for all countries by January 2008, no new dates have been set for specific nations or regions, Pike said. The Caribbean Hotel Association, which had urged the US Department of Homeland Security not to implement the rules until January 2008, applauded the decision to review the date. "We're thrilled," said Lorraine Ortiz, a spokeswoman for the association. "It will enable us to prepare for the change." Some US$2.5 billion (euro2 billion) in revenue from Americans who travel to the Caribbean without passports is at stake, according to a recent study by the London-based World Tourism and Travel Council. Some 20 per cent or 57 million Americans have passports. US visitors at present can enter 27 Caribbean countries without passports. Homeland Security officials have said the new rules were not final and the United States would consider complaints. US President George W Bush has said he was surprised by the proposal and has ordered a review. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com