The European Commission is planning to launch a lawsuit against some of the largest US tobacco companies over alleged cigarette smuggling into the 15-nation union.

The Commission says it has evidence the US companies are involved in smuggling cigarettes to the EU and sues to recover lost tax revenues

It says the alleged smuggling operation has cost the bloc and its members billions of euros and that cigarrette smuggling is the biggest single fraud against the EU budget.

The legal action will be carried out in US civil courts rather than a criminal court, because the EU wants to recoup the money, rather than seek punishment.

'We want our money back'

"The civil action means we want our money back," European Commission spokesman Luc Veron said.

"The Commission is determined to defend the financial interests of the European community. So we want money."

When asked how much the EU wanted, Mr Veron said: "Billions. Billions. Name it euros or dollars. Billions."

Commission spokesmen declined to say which tobacco companies were allegedly involved in the smuggling.

They said that the operation involved shipping illegal cigarettes into every EU country, with transport containers full of cigarettes imported illegally from third countries, which the Commission declined to name.

No duties levied

A container full of cigarettes could bring in duties of about 1m euros.

"Taxes required under EU legislation are not paid," Mr Veron said.

He said the smuggling operation involved several thousand truckloads of cigarettes a year,

The suit is to be filed in the next couple of months and follows a two-year investigation by the EU's anti-fraud office.

Officials at the United States mission to the EU confirmed they knew of the investigation and said there had been contacts between the EU anti-fraud office and the US Justice Department.

However, a civil suit involving the EU and US tobacco companies would not involve the US government, officials said.