European Union regulators are poised to give the green light on Thursday to Glencore's merger with Xstrata after the commodities giant fine-tuned its package of concessions to regulators' competition concerns, a person familiar with the discussions said.

"The deal is very, very close to being done," the person said.

The European Commission is due to give the nod to the roughly $70 billion merger after weeks of intense discussions in which Glencore had to address regulators' concerns over competition in the European zinc market. Shareholders in Glencore and Xstrata gave their backing to the merger on Tuesday and both sides had been keen to secure clearance under the EU's fast-track procedure.

To clear the merger, Glencore had recently offered to cancel its exclusive contract with Belgian zinc smelter Nyrstar, but the EU's antitrust chief, Joaquin Almunia, had sought more assurances over how that relationship would be terminated in a way that allowed rivals to compete.

"The last round of talks was about how the Nyrstar agreement could be terminated in a way;that means Glencore doesn't have influence over Nyrstar," the person explained. "Third parties had been pushing for hard for that."

Once the European Commission, which acts as the EU's antitrust watchdog, gives its backing, the focus will shift to China , where regulators are still reviewing the deal.
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