Songwriters including France's Charles Aznavour and Bee Gees star Robin Gibb, yesterday threatened to "declare war" and pull their works off the airwaves if the European Union proceeds to change the way music royalties are collected.

The European Commission's antitrust arm is believed to be pushing for a decision which would declare certain reciprocal arrangements between national music royalty collecting societies for the re-transmission of music by cable, satellite and the internet to be anti-competitive and illegal.