The Belgian competition authorities have ordered the Ahold supermarket group to sell eight Albert Heijn supermarkets in Belgium to win approval for its merger with Delhaize, according to Belgian media reports.

However, the competition authority itself has refused to confirm or deny the reports and Ahold has said that both groups may have to sell branches to win approval for the deal, broadcaster RTL news reports.

Albert Heijn has 38 branches in the Belgian region of Flanders and Delhaize has 838 throughout the country as a whole.

The merger was announced last June and will create the fourth biggest supermarket group in Europe and the fifth biggest in the US. The new company will have 6,500 supermarkets worldwide and annual turnover of over €54bn.