European clothing firms are ditching their local suppliers and are opting more and more for cheaper imports from Asia, especially China, according to a French study released.

Around 75 percent of clothes bought by the firms come from outside the European Union, with 64 percent from Asia and 36 percent from China alone, the study from the Lille-based French Fashion Institute (IFM) said.

Evelyne Chaballier, one of the report's authors, said that after import tariffs were scrapped on clothes from Asia in 2005 there was an initial spike in the amount of textiles sourced there.

This "slide towards Asia" has continued ever since and is set to last on into 2008, Chaballier said.

The 48 distributors, manufacturers and labels in Europe surveyed by IFM expected their imports from Asia, eastern Europe and north Africa to grow over the next three years, while those from their own countries and the rest of Europe will fall.