Brussels, 17/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - As President Chirac prepares to go to India on Sunday, Indian Trade Minister Kamal Nath warned European Commissioner Peter Mandelson that the Union would be in breach of WTO rules if Mittal Steel's public takeover bid on Arcelor were blocked. “Such a situation would affect discussions underway” in the Doha Round, he said. “I am in full agreement with you that we should prevent the Arcelor case negatively affecting our common efforts to liberalise trade and strengthen the WTO rule book”, Mr Mandelson replied in a letter dated 16 February. “The case incidentally also highlights that we may yet come to regret having rejected WTO negotiations on investment in the Doha Round. You will recall that this was a European priority for which we fought hard but had to relinquish after receiving too little support from our trading partners”, Mandelson writes, adding: “Overall I want to confirm to you that I share your view that this case should be assessed on objective criteria including competition law, shareholder value and the long term interests of the companies concerned. The European Commission has said this publicly and it has my full support”.