03 October 2004	Sunday	17 Shaban 1425

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 2: US software giant Microsoft said on Friday that it was confident that it would succeed in an appeal against a European Union (EU) ruling that it had abused its market dominance.

"We go forward with all the confidence that we had when we arrived and we go forward with the conviction that we brought with us that there must be a better way to address these issues," Brad Smith, Microsoft's chief lawyer, told reporters at the end of the two-day appeal hearing.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, ruled in March that the company had to offer a version of its operating system Windows without its Media Player software, which offers access to audio and video content.

The Brussels commission also required Microsoft to provide competitors with the information they needed to enable their products to communicate with Windows.

Brussels also fined Microsoft nearly half a billion euros (dollars). The money has been paid into an escrow account, meaning it is held in trust and neither Microsoft nor the commission has access while the appeal is pending.

The company insisted Friday that nobody would want to buy its Windows operating system without Media Player, the software titan claiming that users did not want a stripped-down version of its all-conquering system.

Microsoft is appealing against both the judgement and, in this case, against the steps it has been ordered by the commission to take, until a decision is reached on the basic ruling.

Smith said the measures would mean "billions of euros of costs on European consumers and software developers."-AFP