Canadians won't need to pack their passports when entering the U.S. by car until June 2009, according to U.S. legislation passed Thursday.

"It's a nice Christmas present for Canadian travellers," said the CBC's Henry Champ, reporting from Washington.

Under the multi-agency budget bill, which cleared in Congress on Thursday, passport requirements will be delayed until June 2009.

The legislation was written into the budget bill by Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, whose office said they will be working to extend it beyond that date.

President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bill, according to a spokesman from Leahy's office.

Originally, the mandatory passport requirement was to kick in at all Canada-U.S. land and sea borders in the summer of 2008.

Canada, however, has long said that deadline is too early.

Canadians flying to the U.S. have had to carry a passport since Jan. 23 of this year. The requirement created long lineups at passport offices and headaches for travellers rushing to obtain their passports in time.

"This buys breathing room to try to find better and more sensible answers for Northern Border security.  The passport requirement is the wrong answer to the wrong question. It creates major hassles for law-abiding citizens and communities all across the longest peaceful border in the world," Leahy said in release.

He said mandatory passport legislation was rushed to the border before necessary technology, infrastructure and training were in place to enforce it.

"We saw what happened earlier this year when they started requiring passports for airline flights, touching off massive passport processing backlogs — and that involved only about a tenth of the population that will be affected by the next phase, at our land borders," Leahy said.