The European Commission has threatened to take legal action against several EU member-states for failing to sufficiently liberalise telecommunications.

The Enterprise Commissioner, Mr Errki Liikanen, declined yesterday to identify the states that face infringement proceedings but Commission sources suggest that the Republic is among them.

The Commission complains that the Government has been too slow in "unbundling the local loop" by allowing telecoms firms to operate services on the last mile of telephone lines that run from local exchanges to private homes.

Presenting the Commission's annual report on telecommunications liberalisation, Mr Liikanen urged member-states to act swiftly to remove regulatory bottlenecks that prevent consumers in some countries from having access to such services as broadband Internet access.