GENEVA -- Antigua and Barbuda asked the World Trade Organization to intervene in a row with the United States over the cross-border supply of gambling and betting, trade sources said. The twin Caribbean island state argues that its small economy is being hurt by a U.S. "view" that U.S. laws ban gambling and betting services being supplied from outside the country to consumers in the U.S.

Antigua and Barbuda said it had developed electronic commerce in a bid to diversify its economy, which is highly dependent on tourism but which is often hit by violent hurricanes.

Internet gaming was among the industries it had attracted to the country, providing jobs and revenues for the government, it said. It stressed that the financial services industry, including internet gaming, was tightly regulated and supervised. The state's Chief Foreign Affairs Representative Sir Ronald Sanders reportedly told delegates: "The effect of the United States enforcement of its laws is to hurt the small economy of Antigua and Barbuda which is struggling to survive."

The U.S. is the "center of the world's gambling business", he said, adding that U.S. commitments under the WTO's services agreement "when properly interpreted" implied full commitment on cross-border supply of gambling and betting services.

Washington used its right under WTO rules to block the first-time request to the WTO's dispute settlement body for a panel of experts to be established to probe the complaint, a source added.

But a second request by Antigua and Barbuda, likely to be made at next month's meeting on July 21, must automatically be granted.

U.S. Ambassador to the WTO, Linnet Deily, said cross-border gambling and betting services did not fall under the scope of its specific commitments on market access under the WTO's services agreement.

In consultations over the last three months with Antigua and Barbuda, the U.S. had also made it clear that cross-border gambling and betting were prohibited under U.S. law, she added.

The ban applies for both domestic and foreign service suppliers because of the "social, psychological dangers and law enforcement problems" they create, she said.