The European Union(EU) welcomed Monday a new step taken by Microsoft to resolve a long-standing antitrust case between the US software giant and Brussels regulators.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, said it is studying the proposals Microsoft put forward last month in order to comply with a 2004 antitrust ruling under the threat of hefty fines.

"I am happy that Microsoft has recognized certain principles which must underlie its implementation of the commission's decision," said EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes.

One of the things that the commission demanded of Microsoft was that the group disclose "complete and accurate interface documentation" that would allow non-Microsoft software work with the group's Windows software and servers.

The EU commission said that it would now market test Microsoft's proposals delivered to Brussels shortly before a deadline last week.

"The commission is putting Microsoft's proposals to industry in order to asses them in full," it said in a statement.

EU regulators have said that it would take a few weeks to decide whether Microsoft's proposals complied with the 2004 decision.

According to the Commission, Microsoft has agreed that it will allow development and sale of interoperable products on a worldwide basis, and also recognized that a category of the information which it is obliged to disclose will be royalty-free.

In March 2004, the commission fined the software group a record 497 million euros (610 million dollars) for abusing its dominant market position.

The commission also called on Microsoft to market a version of its leading operating system Windows without bundling it to its software Media Player and required the company to divulge information about its product operating system needed by manufacturers of competing products.

Source: Xinhua