SCRAPPING a visa waiver program that eases travel to the United States for Australians and of dozens of other partner nations would be "a mistake," a top US official says.
The US visa waiver program allows citizens from 38 approved countries, including Australia, New Zealand and many European countries, to travel to the United States without a visa for stays of 90 days or less.
There have been increasing calls for doing away with the program, however, following recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa and Sydney.
America's Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson insisted, however, that the program is too "valuable" to discard.
He made his remarks during an annual speech at a US think tank on the progress made in safeguarding US domestic security and future challenges ahead.
"The visa waiver program is an important, valuable program, there are some out there who want to scrap it, I think that's a mistake," he said.
Some US lawmakers and other officials have suggested, however, that the visa waiver program leaves America vulnerable.
US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted earlier this month that the perpetrators of the deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine were citizens of France - one of the countries on Washington's visa waiver list.
AAP