BRUSSELS, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Nine new EU member states, mainly former Soviet bloc nations, will join the bloc's border-free Schengen zone on December 21, just in time for Christmas, the EU's presidency announced Wednesday.

People in the new members of the Schengen zone -- the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia -- will thereafter be able to travel by land through the participating countries without the need for travel documents.

Their airports are scheduled to be included in the scheme next March.

BRUSSELS, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union hopes to open up its land borders to nine new countries ahead of schedule so that citizens can enjoy freer intra-EU travel for Christmas, senior officials said Tuesday.

'I hope that a final decision will be taken in November so that the lifting of the land borders can happen, even the week before Christmas,' EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini told reporters.

BRUSSELS, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Nine new EU member countries are now connected to a massive European police database, fulfilling a key condition for them to join the Schengen border-free zone, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Nine of the 10 mainly ex-communist states that joined the EU in 2004 'have been connected to the Schengen Information System (SIS) since September 1,' said European Commission justice spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing.