"We would still love that opportunity," Ballmer told a news conferenceduring a "European Business Summit" organised by Belgium's employers'federation.

"We would love to settle this case. We were unable to in the last rounddiscussion. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time,"Ballmer said, referring to earlier talks aimed at reaching a settlementwhich collapsed in April.

A US court ruled this week that the computer software giant must be split intwo. Joel Klein, head of the US Justice Department's antitrust division,said on Thursday he was "prepared to engage in meaningful settlementnegotiations" with Microsoft.