Washington, Feb 02: US and European negotiators have failed to break a deadlock over signal structure for Europe's planned multibillion-dollar Galileo satellite navigation tool, a European spokesman said last night.

The United States has offered to share its satellite know-how if the Europeans accept a US-proposed technical standard. But some critics say the offer is designed to serve US commercial interests under the guise of promoting national security.
''We agree it would be good that we both use the same frequency,'' said Anthony Gooch, a spokesman in Washington for the European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of the 15-nation European Union.
But in talks that wound up here Friday, the EC stuck to its preferred option - known as Binary Offset Carrier or BOC (1.5, 1.5) - rather than accepting the US -backed structure known as BOC 1.1, Gooch said.
''And we hope the US will see the merits of adopting 1.5'' for the civilian signal on its own next generation of global positioning system satellites,” he said.
Both the United States and the EU want Galileo and GPS (a dual-use system to support both civil and military users) to mesh as seamlessly as possible for the benefit of users, manufacturers and service providers.
Any harmonization agreement could unleash vast private-sector investments in the so-called open service of Europe's planned 30-satellite Galileo system, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2008.
The EC holds that the 1.5 signal would give consumers far more accuracy than the one pushed by Washington, and Europeans are keen to have a ''state-of-the-art'' system, Gooch said.
Bureau Report