GENEVA, March 8: Ecuador on Thursday asked the World Trade Organisation to set up a panel to rule on its dispute with the European Union over banana imports into the 27-nation bloc, trade sources said.

The EU blocked the request in the meeting of the WTO's Disputes Settlement Body here, effectively delaying the procedure until the DSB's next meeting on March 20, the sources added.

"Ecuador has been seriously affected by the new banana import regime of the EU in place since Jan 1, 2006," Ecuador said in a statement to the meeting.

"What we need are clear rules and the elimination of discriminatory and distorting measures of the regime," it added. Ecuador's complaint is the first to challenge revised EU rules on imports of bananas from outside the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) zone that took effect last year.

The EU's changed import policy was itself a response to a landmark WTO ruling in favour of several Central American banana exporters in 2001 that had forced Brussels to cut duties.—AFP