EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned on Monday that the bloc could halt further exports of the coronavirus vaccine, after Italy stopped a shipment to Australia.

File photo: AFP

"That was not a one-off," the president of the European Commission told business newspaper Wirtschaftswoche.

Italy last week revealed it had blocked the export of 250,700 doses of AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine meant for Australia, blaming the shortage of jabs in virus-hit Europe -- and the lack of urgent need in Australia.

Defending Italy's action, von der Leyen said AstraZeneca had delivered less than 10 percent of the volumes that the bloc had ordered for December to March.

The European Commission has criticised the Anglo-Swedish company for failing to fulfil its delivery schedule to the EU, even as it supplied full doses to Britain.

Under the EU scheme, a company wanting to export outside the bloc needs to apply for permission to the national government, which decides after consulting the commission.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert last week stressed the EU was supplying vaccines to the whole world -- unlike countries such as the United States.

"We stand by this European approach, which differs from the American approach when it comes to production, for instance," Seibert said.