The commissioner at the European Union's top antitrust authority, Neelie Kroes, told reporters on Friday that she had spoken to Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday evening.

"He announced that they have intention to ship it (Vista) globally," she told reporters on the sidelines of a competition conference in Italy.

After a years-long antitrust case against Microsoft and a record fine of close to half a billion euros (almost $630 million) for anti-competitive behaviour, Kroes warned Microsoft last March that she had concerns about Vista.

The European Commission was worried that the operating system would package features such as an Internet search function like Google's and software similar to that of Adobe's "pdf" fixed document formats.

The "bundling" of such software in an operating system that is used by more than 90 percent of the world's PCs may create a disincentive for customers to then buy Adobe's  and Google's products.

But it is up to a company to ensure that their products comply with European Union laws.

"He was aware that he shouldn't ask me if I could give a green light to it and rightly so," Kroes said of her conversation with Ballmer.

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