European ministers may demand the European Commission make fresh proposals to solve an impasse with the United States over an aviation agreement after Washington dropped a key element, EU President Finland said on Thursday.

The United States withdrew a proposal on Tuesday to ease restrictions on overseas investment in US airlines, a central demand from the European Union in talks toward an "open skies" pact to liberalize trans-Atlantic aviation.

EU transport ministers, meeting in Brussels next week, will be updated by the Commission on the state of play of a deal with US negotiators.

"As we have been saying all the time, it is very important that there is a balance between the interests of both sides, and now this balance is badly tilted," Finnish Ambassador Nina Vaskunlahti told reporters.

"The ministers may ask the Commission to make urgent proposals to restore the balance," she said. She declined to say what such proposals could entail.

The two sides reached a tentative deal last year to expand aviation service and boost airline competition, but the deal was put on hold while Europe waited for Washington to ease its limits on foreign investment in American carriers.

International investors in US airlines are bound by a World War Two-era rule that gives them virtually no say in the day-to-day or strategic operating decisions of any carrier they take a stake in. Overseas interests are limited to 25 percent of the voting stock in US airlines.

US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters dropped the proposal, because it did not have wide support in Congress and among labor groups, who say the plan could compromise security and cost jobs.

Vaskunlahti said Finland, which holds the six-month presidency of the EU until the end of the year, is disappointed with the US move, which has distanced the prospect of an agreement.

Officials from both sides plan to review the situation at a meeting in Brussels early next year.