U.S. President Barack Obama has announced that for the first time records of White House visitors will be available to the public.
In a statement Friday, the president said each month records of visits from the previous 90 to 120 days will be available online.
President Obama said Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policy-making process in the White House.
The White House statement says a small group of appointments will not be disclosed because of national security reasons. It says visits that are confidential, such as possible Supreme Court nominees, will also not be made public.
The previous Bush administration fought against disclosing the visitor logs. Mr. Obama says the disclosure policy helps the administration achieve its promise to be open and transparent.
A private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, had sued the Bush and Obama administrations for the release of the logs.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.
