Cherie Blair, the wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is representing US conglomerate General Electric (GE) in a high-profile lawsuit against the European Commission (EC) which opened this week, said a report on Thursday.  

Blair is part of an eight-strong legal team acting for GE at the hearings at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, according to AFP.

GE is seeking to overturn a veto by the EC, the European Union's executive arm, on GE's planned 40-billion-US dollar merger with US electronics giant Honeywell.

The EC's decision in 2001 to block the merger on competition grounds seriously strained relations between Brussels and the United States which had already approved the merger.

The appeal began on Tuesday with lawyers for Honeywell presenting their arguments against the veto to the European Court of First Instance, the lower chamber of the European Union's top court.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2004)