EC, U.S. REMAIN DIVIDED OVER PASTA DISPUTE Top-level talks last week between the European Community (EC) and the United States failed to resolve a dispute over pasta which may provoke new trade frictions next month, diplomatic sources said. The U.S. Insists the EC complies with what it regards as an unambiguous ruling from the world trade body GATT and dismantles an export subsidy system which has led to Italy taking an increasing share of the U.S. Pasta market. The sources said the EC, which currently provides subsidies of around 16 cents a pound, offered a compromise in last week's talks in Brussels but that this was rejected by the U.S. U.S. Assistant Special Trade Representative Jim Murphy has returned to Washington ahead of a theoretical July 1 deadline for agreement, set last August when the two sides resolved a related dispute over EC restrictions on U.S. Citrus imports. The diplomatic sources said the citrus issue could be reopened if the pasta dispute was not solved quickly. It was also possible the U.S. Would reimpose a 40 pct tariff on EC pasta, lifted when the citrus row was settled. But the two sides may agree to extend the deadline for a few days as EC Commissioners Willy de Clercq and Frans Andriessen are due to visit Washington from July 7 to 10.