Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker would still try to resume discussions with the European Commission to reach a mutual resolution.  

"We worked hard to reach an agreement that would address the European Commission's concerns and still allow us to innovate and improve our products for consumers," Ballmer said.

"We were really on the verge of an agreement that would resolve the issue in this case without the need for litigation," he told reporters in a teleconference.

The European Commission on Wednesday fined Microsoft Corp. a record 497 million euros (US$606 million) for breaking antitrust law and ordered it to unbundle media software from its operating system.

Analysts say that move could lead to fundamental changes in how the world's biggest software maker does business.

EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said the ruling aims to assure anyone who develops new software had a fair opportunity to compete in the marketplace and it was important to have a decision that would make it easier and quicker to act on future complaints.

But Ballmer described the EU action as "much riskier," saying the ruling offers little to consumers.

"We respect the Commission's authority, but we believe that our settlement offer from last week would have offered far more choices and benefits to consumers." Microsoft had offered to include three rival media players in the Windows operating system,

Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel of Microsoft, said the company would appeal to the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg, which could delay action on the order for years.

Smith said he was "very optimistic" the court would suspend the EU orders. "We believe we have excellent arguments about how this would cause consumer confusion and disrupt the industry."

He noted a negotiated settlement would have yielded immediate action, but a protracted legal battle could drive them "on a path to get a result in 2009."

"We want to resolve these issues as quickly as possible, and we look forward to the possibility of continuing these discussions as this case moves forward," he said.

The European Commission gave Microsoft 90 days to unbundle its Windows Media Player, which it said has damaged such rivals as RealNetworks RealPlayer and Apple Computer Inc.'s Quicktime.

It also ordered Microsoft to allow makers of servers, the big computers that run networks, to view its software code so that they can make systems that are compatible with those running on Microsoft software.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2004)