BRUSSELS, March 19: The European Union condemned on Wednesday the discovery of illicit phone taps at its Brussels headquarters, on the eve of a summit clouded by huge rifts over Iraq.

The mystery bugging system targeted the offices of half a dozen delegations, including Britain, France, Germany and Spain, diplomats said, while issuing a pointed rebuff to whoever was behind the taps.

Senior officials denied a report that investigators had concluded that the United States was behind the phone-taps, saying a probe had not yet determined who planted them.

“The first thing I can do is to condemn this act,” said Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

“We will be waiting for the results,” he said, adding that: “To all those who feel that it is necessary to tap our phones, we say that Europe is a very transparent organization... they shouldn’t go to such lengths to try to find out information.”

EU security services found the taps on lines between the switchboard of the Council building, where meetings of EU ministers and leaders are held, and delegation rooms.

One diplomat said Austria and Italy were also on the list of targets, but sources close to those delegations denied this.

According to the French daily Le Figaro, Belgian police have identified “Americans” as those responsible, but Belgian police declined any comment.

EU officials said it was unknown who planted the bugs. “The investigation has only just started and we know nothing yet about who has benefitted from this crime,” said Dominique-Georges Marro, head of the council’s press service.

“I deny that we have identified whoever was responsible, whether it was the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese or whoever,” said a council official.

“We are still investigating but it seems it was pretty professional,” he said.

A spokesman for the US mission to the EU declined to comment on the report. “We are aware of the press reports. We have received no communication from the EU about this investigation,” he said.

French European Affairs Minister Noelle Lenoir, attending a ministerial meeting ahead of the EU summit, said she was “very shocked” by the discovery.

France and Germany have been in a fierce standoff over the looming war on Iraq, notably with EU members Britain and Spain who support the US threat of conflict.

But the presence of Britain and Spain among the targeted states weakened the theory that the United States was behind the phone taps, since Madrid and London are firmly behind Washington over Iraq.

Christina Gallach, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, confirmed the phone taps but denied that an investigation had determined specifically who was responsible.

“Rumors about the specific origin of this situation are absolutely untrue. This is a very limited case and it is fully under investigation,” she said.

She added that the taps, found after an “anomaly” was reported on an internal phone line, appeared “to be linked to hostile intentions.”

Marro said the bugging systems were found “in the past few days” during regular inspections by security services. “Attempts had previously been made but this is the first time that we have found a system already in place,” he said.

A British delegation spokesman confirmed that London’s offices were among “about half a dozen” countries targeted.

“We are obviously very concerned about this. We’ve offered whatever help we can,” said the spokesman.

EU political leaders and their civil servants meet in such rooms on the sidelines of ministerial meetings and summits. An official said there were no military offices in the building.

PRODI’S CALL: European Commission head Romano Prodi on Wednesday urged EU leaders to set aside their differences over Iraq and reunite to turn the “crisis into a springboard” for the EU’s future.

“Today the world is divided and the divide also runs through the Union,” he said in an open letter to EU heads of state and government on the eve of a summit of the 15-member bloc on Thursday and Friday.

“The situation is grim and we need to study the root causes if we are to bridge the divide and turn this crisis into a springboard for the Union,” he added.—AFP/Reuters