BRUSSELS, Belgium - In a preview of its promised appeal, Microsoft Corp. accused the European Union Tuesday of overreaching by including its U.S. business in calculating a record fine of about $615 million for alleged antitrust abuses.

With the EU decision due today, trans-Atlantic tensions also began to sizzle as they did the last time the EU took on U.S. corporate giants and blocked General Electric Co.'s planned deal for Honeywell International Inc.

"This ruling is yet another example of the EU assaulting a successful American industry and policies that support our economic growth," said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Microsoft's home state of Washington.

Microsoft's chief European lawyer, Horacio Gutierrez, argued that the EU's reported fine appeared to be twice what it should have been under the European Commission's guidelines to account for the company's global operations.

"We believe it's unprecedented and inappropriate for the Commission to impose a fine on a company's U.S. operations when those operations are already regulated by the U.S. government," Gutierrez said.

The Associated Press