European antitrust chief Karel Van Miert's schedule for a two-day visit to Washington does not include a meeting with the US department of transportation despite an imminent European Commission ruling on two air pacts.

Van Miert said US negotiation of liberal "open skies" aviation agreements with individual European countries had created anticompetitive effects within Europe.

"This is not always well understood in the US," he told a press conference after signing an agreement on closer competition cooperation.

Van Miert noted that even when two European countries such as the Netherlands and Germany had reached pacts with the United States, their carriers were not able to compete freely through the other European nation.

"The effect of the alliances has this kind of anticompetitive consequences so we are notprepared to close our eyes to them," he said.

By the end of the month, Van Miert hopes to unveil his position on plans for the proposed alliance between American Airlines and British Airways.

He will also likely rule on an existing deal between United Airlines and Lufthansa.

Van Miert said the US justice department's recent analysis that the BA-AA partners should be asked to give up nearly 340 weekly take-off and landing slots was very close to his own.

Lufthansa-United should probably cut 100 slots, he said.

"But as you know, at the end of the day it's the department of transportation that is going to take the decision," he said.

US assistant secretary for aviation Charles Hunnicutt sent a letter to Van Miert recently saying fewer flights and higher fares were likely to result from his proposals. Van Miert replied that slots would only be given up if a credible competitor wished to enter the market.

Van Miert said at a meeting with transportation secretary Rodney Slater was not possiblebecause of scheduling difficulties and did not directly reply to why a meeting with Hunnicutt was not substituted.

At the earlier signing ceremony, the European competition commissioner was joined by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and the two top American trustbusters, Robert Pitofsky and Joel Klein.

The 1998 "positive comity" agreement allows either the United States or the EU to request action by the other if adversely affected by anticompetitive behaviour occurring in the other country.

Reno said it was "an honour" to sign the agreement which"grows out of a shared commitment" to co-operation.

Van Miert called it "another step forward in the successful co-operation between the United States and the European Union in the competition field."

Both Klein and Van Miert both looked forward to the next goal, which would be an agreement for sharing confidential information.

In the meantime, Van Miert expressed pleasure at closeco-operation between the United States and Europe on two high-profilecases, a suit that charges Microsoft Corp with exploiting a monopoly and the proposed merger of MCI and WorldCom Inc.

"The Microsoft case has been dealt with by the Americans, so we refrain from doing so because we feel confident" in their approach, he said.

(Reuters)