WASHINGTON — The post office wants to get into the gift card business.

Prepaid cards have become one of the most popular gift items and postal officials want to do more than just deliver them to the lucky recipients.

So they plan a two-year test beginning in May, with about 2,000 post offices selling cards issued by companies such as American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa, according to papers filed Wednesday with the independent Postal Regulatory Commission.

The first test will be at post offices that also sell greeting cards.