Antitrust regulators from the European Union's 25 countries voted unanimously on Monday to levy new daily fines on Microsoft for flouting a 2004 ruling, two people close to the case said.

Regulators backed EU plans to fine the company but did not discuss the amount of the fine -- which they will do at another meeting next week, the individuals confirmed separately.

Both, who are close to different parties in the dispute, spoke on condition of anonymity because no formal decision has yet been taken.

The European Commission threatened in December to levy fines of up to 2 million euros (AU$3.45 million) a day against Microsoft for not complying with an order to supply rivals with "complete and accurate" information to help them develop software that works smoothly with Microsoft's Windows operating system.

It must consult regulators twice -- once on the principle of the ruling and on the amount -- before it announces the fine.

The commission declined to comment on the meeting while Microsoft said it was working to meet deadlines to fix problems with the technical manual.

"Microsoft is dedicating massive resources to meet the aggressive schedule and high quality standards set by the trustee and the commission in this process," it said. "Our engineers are working around the clock to meet the seventh and final delivery date for this project scheduled for July 18."

The company last week said any fine at this stage would be "unjustified and unnecessary" while it was still working to comply with the ruling.

But the commission said a decision to levy fines was not connected with this project and Microsoft had already had 18 months to comply after a court rejected its appeal to apply sanctions immediately.

The commission has said fines would run from a December 15 deadline for the company to comply with the ruling to the day it formally decides that the company was in breach of EU law.

The Financial Times last week reported that the EU would take a final decision to fine Microsoft on July 12 -- which could see Microsoft faced with a maximum 418 million euro (AU$721 million) penalty.

The commission refused to confirm this date.

The EU has never before fined a company for failing to obey an earlier order.

Microsoft said it has a team of 300 people working full-time on a framework to supply the information agreed on with a supervisor -- computer science professor Neil Barrett -- in April.

It has already delivered six of seven instalments, it said.

Barrett reported last year that 12,000 pages of a manual provided by the software firm needed a drastic overhaul to make them workable.

In December 2004, Microsoft lost a legal bid to stop antitrust sanctions while it was appealing the ruling that obliged it to share communications code with rivals, offer a version of Windows without Media Player software and pay a record 497 million euro (AU$860 million) fine.

The EU's second-highest court heard its appeal in April and must still deliver its verdict. Its judgment can be appealed to the European Court of Justice.