Sir Digby Jones has called on the US Congress to extend its biometric passport deadline by six months in order to prevent damage to transatlantic business links.

The American authorities are demanding that by October 2005 British and other European Union visitors to the US should have biometric passports.

But Britain is unlikely to meet the deadline, and as a result visitors will be required to apply for a visa.

As a compromise measure, the CBI director general has said the deadline should be extended to April 2006. 

Speaking in Washington, Sir Digby expressed concern that additional cost, delays and inconvenience will affect UK firms arranging business trips to the United States.

"Doesn't Congress understand the enormous goodwill it will lose if it keeps legislating in a bubble, failing to appreciate how the modern globalised economy works?" he asked.

"Losing the right to visa-free travel to the US in a little over six months time will present enormous problems for the UK. 

"Applications for US visas can take up to three weeks but global business just doesn't work in these old style time frames.

"In the modern world of work vital meetings will simply not be possible without the freedom to enter the US without a visa. 

"Busy people will not queue around London's Grosvenor Square in the rain to take part in a system that belongs to yesterday."

While accepting security concerns following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Sir Digby added that "if the introduction of new biometric passports is to be a success, countries taking part must be given enough time to prepare".