Following a disagreement over Canberra's decision to abandon a multibillion-euro French submarine deal, a round of free trade discussions between the European Union and Australia has been postponed.

The EU commission spokesman in charge of trade, Miriam Garcia Ferrer, acknowledged the decision but did not specify a reason for the delay.

In 2018, the EU began talks with Australia on a trade agreement. The 12th round of negotiations was supposed to take place via video conference later this month.

In 2016, Australia agreed to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines for 90 billion Australian dollars (£49 billion) with the mainly state-owned Naval Group of France.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, however, cancelled the deal last month as part of a trilateral agreement with the US and the UK to deploy an Australian submarine fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.