European Commission investigators and the UK Office for Fair Trading, in a simultaneous swoop, today raided the European offices of cement companies Holcim-owned by Aggregate Industries, Heidelberg Cement, Dyckerhoff AG, Lafarge Cement UK and Cemex UK for suspicions that the companies may have ran an illegel cartel to rig cement prices.

Cement giants Holcim of Switzerland, HeidelbergCement and Dyckerhoff both of Germany, Lafarge of France, Cemex of Mexico, have already acknowledged that their offices were raided by the regulators.

The current investigations are aimed at unearthing evidence of anti-competitive infringement such as discriminatory pricing, markets sharing arrangements and co-ordinated price movements.

The commission said in a statement ''We have reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated (EU) antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices and/or abuse of a dominant market position.''

The simultaneous investigation, which started yesterday and is still continuing is spread across cement company offices in Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

All the companies said that they were cooperating with the regulators in the investigation.

France based, Lafarge was one of the first to accept that it had been raided by saying that the European anti trust authorities were conducting an investigation into the European cement industry.

One of the world's largest building materials companies, Mexico's Cemex SAB, and Germany's Heidelberg Cement confirmed that its European offices were raided by inspectors from the commission on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Switzerland based Holcim said regulators had investigated the company offices in Britain, Belgium, France and Germany while HeidelbergCement said that its offices in Germany, Britain and the Benelux countries were searched.

Dyckerhoff AG said its offices in Germany and Luxembourg were targeted.

The cement companies in Europe have been on the radar of the EU regulators for some time with HeidelbergCement of Germany was fined €252 million by German regulators in 2003 while Lafarge, the French cement giant was one of the companies that was fined during a investigation into the European cement industry in 1994 which also saw more than 40 companies fined for forming a cartel of the cement market among themselves.

Cartel Damage Claims had filed a case against Heidelberg, Lafarge, Holcim, Cemex and three others, seeking £280 million in damages when an investigation found the company's had colluded in a cartel stretching back to the 1970s.