BRUSSELS - The European Union's trade chief warned former colonies on Tuesday they would lose out if they miss a Dec. 31 deadline for new trade and investment deals with the bloc.

The European Union and nearly 80 countries in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group have been talking for seven years about so-called Economic Partnership Agreements.

They would replace existing preferential trade deals which were ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation and must be scrapped by the end of this year.

"This deadline is not a bluff or some negotiating tactic invented in Brussels," EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told the European Parliament's trade committee. "It is an external reality created in the WTO in Geneva."

If the new agreements are not up and running by the start of 2008, many ACP countries risk losing some existing trade privileges for their exports of goods such as textiles, cocoa, tuna, bananas and horticulture, he warned.

Mandelson also accused critics of the EPA deals of misleading governments in poor countries with "propaganda" and of encouraging them not to stick to the deadlines.

Anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam has said the new agreements will open up the economies of poor countries too much, exposing local business to unfair competition from Europe.

The EPAs are being negotiated between the EU's executive Commission and six regional ACP groupings of countries.

Mandelson said talks with the Caribbean could be wrapped up soon if the region comes up with a market access offer.

But Pacific countries had sent out "conflicting and confusing messages" and in much of Africa problems were hindering negotiations, he said.