BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary's government will offer to transport thousands of migrants by bus to the Austrian border in the next few hours, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar said on Friday.

The buses will be sent to pick up the thousands of migrants at Budapest's main railway terminus and 1,200 who are walking along the main westward motorway towards Austria, he told a news conference. "This does not automatically mean that they can leave the country," he added. "We are waiting for the Austrian government's response."