The United States intends to re-examine within 18 months its decision to impose steep tariffs on steel imports, which has caused a deep rift with the European Union, US ambassador to the EU Rockwell Schnabel announced. Schnabel said: 'It could then be decided to keep the tariffs, to abolish them or to change them.' The ambassador also said the United States would accept a World Trade Organisation ruling on the matter. The EU had brought it before the WTO in November. Nobody wanted to blow up the dispute out of proportion, Schnabel added. The reports said Schnabel was adopting a 'much more moderate tone' than that of US trade representative Robert Zoellick who had described possible retaliatory measures by the EU as a 'nuclear weapon' against the WTO. A spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in Brussels that retaliatory measures were an option under consideration. The WTO had given the EU until mid-June to take retaliatory measures increasing tariffs on certain US products, the spokesman, Anthony Gooch, said.