WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior officials from the European Union and the US plan to restart stalled talks today aimed at expanding air travel between the two.EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot and German Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said in a joint news conference Monday night that preliminary talks with US officials were positive.

They said, however, that European negotiators were disappointed late last year when the US government scrapped a draft agreement reached in earlier negotiations that would have permitted foreign investors to have more control of US airlines.

"We were astonished, to put it mildly, and not amused that the US reneged on this agreement," Tiefensee said. "The message is that the ball is now in the American camp."

Air travel in Europe and the US accounts for 60 percent of global air traffic, and an ambitious EU-US open skies deal could allow more airlines to fly the lucrative trans-Atlantic routes, possibly offering cheaper tickets.

Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in December that the department bowed to job and security fears when it withdrew a proposal to lift the 25 percent limit on foreign ownership of US carriers.

That effectively turned down Europe's principal demand: to open the US aviation sector to foreigners. That had been viewed as a precursor to a pact that would allow airlines from both regions to fly where they wanted and charge what they wanted across the Atlantic.

Barrot and Tiefensee pressed their case yesterday with officials including Peters, members of Congress and business leaders from the airline industry ahead of formal talks. They said they had received hopeful signals from US officials about the negotiations.

Advocates for a deal hoped it could increase air travel, lower air fares, create jobs and boost investment in US carriers and encourage more European airlines to combine.

But labour unions, some airlines and some Democrats in Congress opposed a move they feared could cost US jobs and allow foreign investors — even foreign governments — to control an industry critical to US national security.