BRUSSELS - European Union antitrust regulators will decide by Feb. 29 whether to nod through U.S. computer maker Dell Inc's $67-billion (47.16 billion pound) bid for data storage company EMC Corp (>> EMC Corporation) or open a full-scale investigation.

The deal would enable world No. 3 computer maker Dell to better compete with rivals Cisco Systems Inc (>> Cisco Systems, Inc.), IBM (>> International Business Machines Corp.) and Hewlett-Packard (>> HP Inc) in managing and storing corporate data on the cloud.

Dell sought EU approval on Monday, according to a filing on the European Commission website. The EU competition watchdog can either clear the deal with or without conditions in the preliminary review or launch a five-month investigation if it has serious doubts.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Robert-Jan Bartunek)