London, Sep 24 (IANS): Britain called on the European Union to open an inquiry after Volkswagen confessed to hoodwinking the US regulators over emissions deception early this week.

In a letter to the European Commission (EC), Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said that officials must "take appropriate action to avoid a re-occurrence", Xinhua cited The Times' report on Wednesday.

He called for EC to launch an urgent investigation. "We are closely monitoring the situation and have been pushing for action at a European level," McLoughlin said, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"Public confidence is vital," he said.

The commission said that it was waiting for the result of a probe by the German government into VW and some of the country's other manufacturers. But it verified that it would reform the EU emission testing system early next year.

It was claimed that VW spent the past seven years falsifying emissions data on its vehicles in the US to pretend to the authorities that its cars were cleaner than they are.