The European Commission wants to delete parts of a disputed derivatives accounting standard to please EU banks, a move that will deal a major blow to EU-US convergence of bookkeeping rules, EU experts said yesterday.

Faced with stern opposition from five EU states and the banking industry, Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein will suggest next week the EU adopts a diluted version of accounting rule IAS 39, according to an EU source.

By doing this the 25-nation European Union would move away from internationally-agreed accounting rules, create its own sets of standards and delay the process towards a single global bookkeeping system, accounting experts warn.

"We have big concerns towards such an approach," Mr Reinhard Biebel, project manager at European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, a group of advisors to the Commission on accounting.

"Europe would create its own set of accounting rules and this does not help convergence [with the United States\]."