The move by the FTC's William Baer opens the way for an antitrust suit against Intel which supplies the microprocessors which power four out of five of the world's personal computers.

Commissioners are likely to vote on the recommendation early next week.

Intel stands accused of abusing its near monopoly power by refusing to share information about its products with certain competitors.

Neither the FTC nor Intel would comment on the case.

Chuch Molloy, an Intel spokesman said: "We don't have any comment on speculation in reports on the status of the FTC investigation."

'Abuse of power'

Andy Grove built Intel into a Silicon Valley giant

The FTC's case is believed to focus partly on how Intel acted against Intergraph, a personal computer maker that uses Intel chips in its machines.

It is said to have cut off vital information Intergraph needed, during a dispute between the companies.

In April, a federal judge granted Intergraph a preliminary injunction against Intel.

The FTC has studied that decision and Intel's similar actions against computer equipment maker Digital Equipment.

Intel was accused of threatening to stop supplying chips to Digital after the company took it to court for allegedly infringing Digital patents in the design of Pentium chips.

The dispute was settled in April, when Intel agreed to purchase Digital's microprocessor assets.

The FTC backed the deal but asked both firms to share technology with other companies to preserve competition.

Monopolising market

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Intel maintains that it has behaved legally and continues to do so.

The company was investigated by the government twice before in 1991 and 1993 but escaped anti-monopoly action.

Based in Santa Clara in California, Intel reigns over the chip market in the same way that Microsoft rules over operating systems.

Together the two firms dominate the PC industry with the so-called "Wintel" machines, which run Microsoft's Windows operating systems on Intel chips.

Microsoft is already the subject of a major antitrust action led by the US Justice Department and 20 American states.