Early next year the US is likely to punish the European Union for its banana import policies by imposing duties on certain EU exports, said its trade representative, Ms Charlene Barshefsky. She blamed "European intransigence" in the six-year-old row that has cast a shadow over a US-EU summit which takes place today. The US is expected to release a list of EU products to be hit with sanctions next week. It could take effect in February but would probably go into force on March 3rd following an appeal by the European Union at the World Trade Organisation.

"We have had a six-year pattern of delay," Ms Barshefsky said. "That kind of delay was not supposed to happen under WTO rules. We will take action."

The US last year won a ruling from a WTO dispute-settlement panel that found the EU banana import regime to be discriminatory and inconsistent with international trade regulations. US officials argued that privileges accorded bananas grown by a group of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific nations, many of them former British or French colonies, harmed the interests of US multinationals which harvested and exported bananas from Central America. The European Union responded by amending its policies but Washington found the new regime unsatisfactory and proposed that the WTO panel be reconvened to settle the dispute.