BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. chemicals company DuPont (>> DuPont) and U.S. peer FMC Corp (>> FMC Corp) secured conditional EU antitrust approval on Thursday for their asset swap deal which is tied to DuPont's merger with Dow Chemical (>> Dow Chemical Company (The)).

In March, DuPont said it would sell part of its crop protection unit to FMC and buy nearly all of FMC's health and nutrition business.

The European Commission said the companies pledged to divest certain assets to address competition concerns.

"Clearance of this transaction is conditional on the divestment of FMC's sulfonylurea and florasulam businesses in the European Economic Area," the EU antitrust enforcer said, referring to two herbicides.

It said DuPont would also sell its global alginates business, which are gelling agents in food and pharmaceutical products.

DuPont and Dow won EU approval for their merger in March after pledging to sell key research and development activities and other assets.

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

Stocks treated in this article : DuPont, Dow Chemical Company (The), FMC Corp