BRUSSELS President George W. Bush's European tour kicks off next week under the cloud of transatlantic trade rows on steel, a subsidy-laden farm bill and allegations of protectionism against Washi

The United States portrays itself as the bastion of free trade, but partners have recently slammed it for backsliding after introducing new steel duties in March and approving a farm bill that include

Top industrialized states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development were so worried about trade friction that their annual ministerial meeting explicitly urged nations last week to

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel renewed the attack just days before Bush was due to fly into Germany, telling a conference he was worried the United States had "fallen back into extremely protecti

Germany and other allies are likely to press Bush over his commitment to free trade at a time when the United States and the European Union are trying to drive global talks that will lead to further l

The negotiations, launched in Doha in Qatar last year, also aim to allow developing nations to benefit from global trade.

Despite the rows, trade experts say that so far a full-scale trade war is not on the horizon.

"There are threats here and there but the parties are still talking," said Raed Safadi, principal economist at the Trade Policy Division of the OECD.

"It has not escalated and I hope it will not escalate so long as they keep talking," he said.

"The spirit of Doha is still alive," European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said, pointedly expressing hopes that U.S. free trade rhetoric would be translated into reality.

The steel row is one of the bitterest to break out between the United States and its trading partners in recent years.

The European Union has threatened to slap sanctions worth about $300 million on a range of U.S. goods from June if Washington does not agree to compensation for the steel tariffs in the form of lower

To cap this, the United States has approved a bill on the agricultural sector which raises government subsidies for crop and dairy production by 67 percent.

Other EU-U.S. trade rows are simmering, including European resistance to importing genetically modified crops, dubbed "Frankenstein foods" by critics, and an EU ban on imports of beef from cattle rear