MADRID (AP) — A senior official says that the Spanish government is asking the European Union to challenge a U.S. move to allow lawsuits against foreign companies operating in properties seized from Americans in post-revolution Cuba.

The move, announced Tuesday, breaks with two decades of U.S. policy on the island.

Spain, which has large investments in hotels and other tourism-related industries in Cuba, will ask the EU to challenge the decision in the World Trade Organization, a senior government official told The Associated Press.

The official requested anonymity because she wasn't authorized to discuss the matter publicly. She added that Spain was committed to defending its interests on the island.

Businesses from Canada, France and Great Britain among other countries also conduct business in properties nationalized after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.