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WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp. on Tuesday rejected concerns raised by European regulators that a planned $115 billion merger of the huge telecommunications groups would stifle competition in the Internet and telecoms services to multinational companies.

The two companies told a hearing organised by the European Commission that their plans to sell Sprint's Internet business were sufficient to address fears about Internet dominance and added that competition was already fierce in the enterprise services market.

"There is no overlap in our activities in Europe," WorldCom Executive Vice President and General Counsel Michael Salsbury told a conference call. "There's a lot of misinformation out there. We believe people should start concentrating on the facts.

"It was essentially our American competitors who came over to present their concerns about how they'd be able to compete with us. That should be a good sign for regulators that this is a competitive merger."

He said other speakers at the hearing included British Telecommunications Plc, labour unions and the Commission, the EU's antitrust watchdog.

The Commission launched an extended four-month investigation into the deal on February 21 and sent the companies a detailed list of its antitrust concerns on May 3. It must decide by July 12 whether to block the merger or clear it with conditions.

Sprint and WorldCom have already responded and have in theory until June 8 to submit any additional information to address concerns. Salsbury said the Commission had so far not asked for any more information.