Will Bill Gates live his own Christmas Carol?

The European Union's antitrust investigation into Microsoft should conclude in time for Christmas.

Phillipe Lowe, incoming successor to Alexander Schaub as the director general for competition, told an antitrust conference that he is working closely with US regulators to complete the investigations by the end of the year.

However, he said a decision would not be made until there is "more clarity on the US side."

EU officials have always said they would wait to see the outcome of the US case before making a decision on whether to go forward with a European antitrust suit.

However, the EU's case differs from the one in the US as it looks more closely at interoperability of server technology rather than just the desktop operating system.

It began its probe four years ago following a complaint from Sun Microsystems that Microsoft was refusing to divulge technical interfaces to Windows NT thus limiting its products' ability to interoperate. Last year, this investigation was expanded to encompass the software giant's streaming media technology and its integration into Windows.

Lowe is scheduled to take over from Schaub on 1 September.