LUXEMBOURG, October 15 - RAPSI. Russia is prepared to grant EU holders of official passports a visa-free travel regime on a mutual basis and hopes that this issue will soon be finalized, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists on Monday.

This is the last issue of the EU-Russian treaty on facilitating the visa regime to be resolved.

"The EU is thinking over our earnest proposal to extend the treaty on facilitating a visa regime to all those who have biometric official passports. We are ready to grant the holders of official passports a visa-free regime on a mutual basis," said Lavrov.

The transition to a visa-free regime between Russia and the EU is an important step towards creating a common area from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he believes.

Russia is in talks with the EU to amend legislation and to liberalize visa procedures, which would allow some citizens to travel without visas. Moscow and Brussels finished discussing the step-by-step transition in late November last year. The list of joint measures for developing an agreement on a visa-free regime was agreed upon at the Russia-EU summit in Brussels on December 14-15.