Minister for Transport Martin Cullen says the Government will pursue a bilateral agreement with Washington if there is no multilateral deal within the next weeks between the EU and US on opening up the aviation sector.

Under EU law the European Commission is in charge of negotiating deals with the US in this area. However, Washington earlier this month dashed hopes of an agreement when it announced it was scrapping proposals which would have given EU and US airlines unrestricted freedom to fly between different cities on both continents - a deal that would have greatly benefited Aer Lingus.

Speaking in Brussels yesterday after a meeting with his EU counterparts, Mr Cullen said he made it clear to EU transport commissioner Jacques Barrot that the Government was prepared to wait until a planned January meeting between the commission and the US to see if the so-called "open skies" deal can be reached - but not much longer.

"We are prepared to wait for that number of weeks," said Mr Cullen. He added that if Brussels and Washington were to "start from scratch" on a new agreement, this would be "too long".

If the January meeting does not prove fruitful, the Government plans to chase a previous draft bilateral deal under which Aer Lingus would be allowed to fly to eight US airports, three more than currently.

Mr Cullen said there were around 22 destinations in the US that would like to fly into Ireland.

At the moment 15 member states have bilateral aviation agreements with the US.

Mr Cullen says "Ireland cannot be left in a position so as to be disadvantaged [ by this]." The Minister said Ireland's stance was given clear support by the Netherlands and Spain.

The open skies deal is seen as important for Aer Lingus allowing it to pull in more revenue by flying to more destinations in the US. But Washington gave into pressure from industry and Congress which were objecting to a key part of the deal, on softer foreign investor rules, something Brussels had made a condition for completing the treaty with the US.