WASHINGTON, Feb 15: The United States has extended the deadline for a large number of foreigners who are required to register with immigration officials while in the country.

The registration period for those from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has now been extended up to March 21, the Immigration and Naturalization Service announced on Friday evening. The two countries were added to the INS registration list on Dec 18, and their nationals were asked to register by Feb 21.

The deadline for the citizens and nationals of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait has also been extended for four weeks. They were added to the list on Jan 16 and were asked to register between Feb 24 and March 28.

The INS believes that about 15,000 Pakistanis are expected to register by March 21, but the Pakistan embassy estimates that as many as 50,000 more Pakistanis could be affected by this requirement.

The first group of the countries requiring registration included Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.

The second group consisted of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The registration period for these two groups had already been extended till Feb 7 after the expiry of the initial period.