European and US negotiators are poised to strike two agreements designed to avoid sanctions against European countries in American courts, and pave the way for President Clinton to announce an ambitious new Transatlantic trade pact at next month's EU-US summit in London.

The two main hurdles, on the Helms-Burton law which threaten sanctions against foreign companies trading with Cuba, and a separate law designed to penalise companies which invest in Iran's oil industry, are "close to completion", US and European officials said yesterday.

The EU has allowed its complaint against the US in the World Trade Organisation in Geneva to lapse, although with the threat to renew it if any action is taken against a European company. The US is now expected in return to grant a waiver to France's Total oil corporation over its plans to develop offshore oil and gas fields in Iran.