The GCC has suspended free trade agreement talks with the European Union, said a top GCC official.

'We have informed the European side of the suspension of negotiations on a free trade accord,' said GCC's secretary-general Abdul Rahman Al Attiyah.

'We are suspending the negotiations until the European side agrees to sign the most recent draft accord, adding that the Gulf states had made many concessions and responded favourably to the EU's several demands.'

The decision came as no surprise, with member nation Qatar warning on December 15 that a suspension was in the offing if an impasse in the 20-year-old negotiations continued.

'Some day in the near future the GCC states will decide to suspend the talks which have so far had no result,' Qatari Prime Minister Shaikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al Thani had said.

The GCC has been in talks with the now 27-member EU about a free trade agreement since 1988.

Shaikh Hamad said the accord should have been signed last month during a visit to Qatar by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

France holds the rotating EU presidency.

He said the European Union 'retracted at the last minute.'

'The negotiations with Europe have gone on for too long, and our European partner must know that the talks cannot last indefinitely,' Shaikh Hamad said.

Europe 'is the GCC's largest trading partner, and if it wishes to expand on that partnership it must reconsider' its position on the talks, he said.

In April, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the question of human rights was one of the points being negotiated. Al Attiyah said in June the GCC would not accept any political conditions.

'The GCC countries reject the imposition of conditions and political demands by the European side to sign an economic agreement,' he said.

Periodically over the years, a deal has been said to be imminent, only for talks to stall.

'Every time we start a round of talks, the European party surprises us by raising new questions or by mixing politics and trade,' Al Attiyah was quoted by the WAM news agency as saying yesterday.

'The GCC is ready to sign the accord when the European side accepts the final propositions made by the Gulf countries. If not, the GCC is not prepared to resume negotiations.'