The ambitious global equity market (GEM) project, would be adirect competitor to Nasdaq-backed iX, the planned merger of the London and Frankfurt exchanges, which faced fresh hurdles on Wednesday.

The plan is being put forward by the New York Stock Exchange- the world's biggest bourse - with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Australian Stock Exchange, and bourses in Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Toronto, Hong Kong, Mexico and Sao Paolo.

"The (GEM) global equity market project is the first attemptto create a world exchange working 24 hours a day," Euronext President Jean-Francois Theodore said in a statement.

Euronext, the planned merger of bourses in Paris, Brusselsand Amsterdam, said working groups were already in place to discuss round-the-clock trading in the 10-fold alliance.

"This is something that has been predicted and speculatedupon for some time," said Lee Cook, head of European equities trading at U.S. Investment bank J.P. Morgan & Co.

"I am a little surprised by the participants. It's a bigdrawback that the LSE and Deutsche Bourse and Nasdaq aren't involved," Cook said.

GEM would trade in big name, international stocks by linkingexchanges in three time zones - Asia-Pacific, Europe-Middle East-Africa, and North and South America.

Order-driven trading in blue chips from the 10 exchangeswould be traded in an order book passed from one time zone to the next, with regulation for each listing still coming under its domestic watchdog.