Brussels, 21/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has approved the planned acquisition of the French firm Cerestar by the American firm Cargill, except for that part concerning the implications of the operation on the British sweetener market, sent back for examination by the Office of Fair Trading. Cargill is a large operator in different sectors of the agri-food market among which trade in large consumer products and the treatment of cereals. France's Cerestar, recently separated from Eridania Beghin-Say (subsidiary of the Italian group Montedison) is, for its part, Europe's foremost producer of starch and starch by-products. The operation was notified to the Commission on 27 November and the United Kingdom asked the European executive to be able to examine that pat of the plan having repercussions on the British market for glucose syrup and mix based on glucose. On the European markets, the Commission observed an overlap in activities in one specific area, that is the manufacture and provision of starch and sweeteners produced from corn, wheat and potatoes. It concluded that, in that sector, there would remain effective competition and thus authorised the operation for the whole of the European Economic Area except the United Kingdom, only State faced with a problem of competition in the sweetener sector, notably that of glucose syrups and glucose-based mixes. This part of the dossier has been sent back for examination to the relevant British authorities, as they had requested.