  We report on $VI$ CCD photometry of two fields centered in the region of the
open clusters NGC 6404 and NGC 6583 down to $V=22.0$. These clusters have never
been studied insofar, and we provide for the first time estimates of their
fundamental parameters, namely, radial extent, age, distance and reddening. We
find that NGC 6404 radius is 2.0 arcmin, as previously proposed, while NGC 6583
radius is 1.0 arcmin, significantly lower than previous estimates. Both
clusters turn out to be of intermediate age (0.5-1.0 Gyr old), and located
inside the solar ring, at a Galactocentric distance of about 6.5 kpc. These
results make these objects very interesting targets for spectroscopic follow-up
to measure their metallicity. In fact they might allow us to enlarge by more
than 1 kpc the baseline of the radial abundance gradient in the Galactic disk
toward the Galactic Center direction. This baseline is currently rather narrow
especially for clusters of this age.
