The EU has alerted China to its decision to launch an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe involving the mobile telecommunications networks sector, Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht announced on Wednesday.

"The European Commission has today taken a decision in principle to open an ex officio anti-dumping and an anti-subsidy investigation concerning imports of mobile telecommunications networks and their essential elements from China," a statement said.

However, in a departure from normal practice , De Gucht stressed that "this decision will not be activated for the time being to allow for negotiations towards an amicable solution with the Chinese authorities."

The decision comes as Brussels and Beijing have stepped up a series of tit-for-tat disputes over market access, most recently in solar panels, and intellectual property rights.

The statement said that China exports telecommunication network equipment to the EU with a market value of around a billion euros each year.

An ex officio trade defence action allows the European Commission to launch a trade defence investigation on its own initiative without an official complaint by the EU industry, the Commission said.

De Gucht's spokesman John Clancy told a regular news conference in Brussels that officials had been gathering evidence for over a year.

Top EU envoy Catherine Ashton is travelling to meet officials from China's newly-installed leadership at the end of April.