The Bush administration has accused 61 countries and three regional blocs of significant trade barriers that harm American manufacturers and farmers. The government's 672-page report on trade barriers is designed to guide US negotiators over the next year in their efforts to attack barriers seen as doing the most damage to American companies.

Focusing on China, Japan and the European Union, the administration has warned that if direct talks should fail to produce results, it could bring cases before the World Trade Organisation to deal with barriers it claims violate WTO rules.

"Consultations, negotiations and litigation are among the tools at our disposal, and we are using all of them aggressively to make sure that Americans are treated fairly,” acting US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier said.

The report has been prepared annually for 20 years under legislation Congress first passed in 1974 to require the executive branch to give an accounting of which countries were erecting the most harmful barriers to US exports.

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