Brussels - The United States will not get away with expanding "Buy American" protectionist measures as part of its economic rescue plan, European Union officials warned Thursday.

"The one thing we can be absolutely certain about is that if a bill is passed which prohibits the sale or purchase of European goods on American territory, that is not something we will stand idly by and ignore," European Commission trade spokesman Peter Power told journalists in Brussels.

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives approved an 819- billion-dollar aid package designed to jolt the country's economy out of its worst recession since World War II.

The package calls for investments in infrastructure, renewable energy, health, education and other sectors, together with sweeping tax cuts.

But alarm bells have rung in Europe over the bill's plans to extend the so-called "Buy American" provision, originally enacted in 1933, to ban foreign-made iron and steel from most of the infrastructure projects.

A version of the text due to be discussed by the US Senate goes further, calling for bans on a wider range of non-American products.

But Power said that it was too early for the commission - the EU's executive - to comment on the act, since it had not yet become law.

"Before we have the final shape of that particular bill it would be premature to take a stance on it," he said.

The US and the EU are one another's main trading partners, with trade flows topping 1.7 billion euros (2.25 billion dollars) a day, according to commission figures.

However, they have regularly clashed over questions of trade barriers, with a string of cases pending in the World Trade Organization on issues ranging from a European ban on hormone-treated beef to US anti-dumping tariffs on French uranium.

According to the commission, the original Buy American act affected around 35 billion dollars' worth of federal contracts in 2005. (dpa)