The EU on Wednesday presented a multi-billion-euro plan to help curb the 27-nation bloc's dependence on China for rare earths, as Beijing's stranglehold on the critical materials threatens key industries.

China, the world's top producer of rare earths, in October announced new controls on exports of the elements used to make magnets crucial to the auto, electronics and defence industries.

The move rattled markets and snarled supply chains until China later said it would suspend the curbs for one year.

Already since April, Beijing had required licences for certain exports of the materials, hitting global manufacturing sectors.

"Europe is responding to the new global geopolitical reality," EU industry chief Stephane Sejourne said of the plans aimed at countering what he has likened to a

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