MICROSOFT YESTERDAY scored an important breakthrough in its long-running battle with European regulators, paving the way for an end to a highly-charged dispute that has hung over the US software company for much of this decade in one of its most important markets.

The EU's anti-trust watchdog said it believed it had won concessions from Microsoft that would bring more competition to the internet browser market, and voiced support for technical changes the company said would make its software work better with other companies' products.

To resolve the EU's complaint about the way it bundles its Internet Explorer browser with Windows, Microsoft has agreed to present PC users with a "ballot screen" giving them the choice of alternative browsers.

It said it had made 20 changes to an initial proposal made three months ago, reflecting comments from other browser makers and the EU competition commission.

The commission, which had pushed for the changes to prevent Microsoft from gaining an unfair advantage because of its control of Windows, has welcomed the initiative.

"The commission's preliminary view is that Microsoft's commitments would indeed address our competition concerns," said Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner.

"Hopefully, we can take a decision before the end of the year," she said.

Anti-trust regulators in Brussels challenged Microsoft's business methods after the US settled its own legal case against the company in the first term of president George W Bush.

Two years ago a European court upheld a sweeping regulatory ruling against the company.

Some long-time Microsoft opponents conceded that the provisional settlement effectively signals an end to its battles in Europe, but continued to maintain that the concessions Microsoft had made would do too little to create a more competitive PC software market. - (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)