Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour has signed a bill that could lead to the sales of liquor by the glass in four new designated resort areas.

The bill must be approved by the U.S. Justice Department before it can become law. Barbour signed it Friday.

Restaurant liquor sales would be allowed, without a referendum, at a development in north Mississippi’s Tishomingo County.

Liquor elections would be held in the other three proposed resort areas — in the city of Flowood; in part of the city of Pearl near the Mississippi Braves minor-league baseball park; and in the city of Picayune.

Flowood and Pearl are suburbs of Jackson, in the central part of the state. Picayune is in the south.

The bill is House Bill 1441.