By Huw Jones

BRUSSELS, July 19 (Reuters) - Europe's industry chief said on Thursday that a move to scrap anti-dumping duties on Chinese energy-saving lightbulbs would cost European jobs and he still has to make up his mind whether to support it.

European Entreprise Commissioner Guenter Verheugen stressed he was not involved in a "turf war" with his counterpart in charge of EU trade policy, Peter Mandelson, who has put forward the controversial proposal to eliminate the duties.

"We have both identified this as an extremely sensitive political question and we both agree that we need to handle it with a lot of care," Verheugen told Reuters.

Mandelson's trade experts have said the duties, introduced in 2001, should not be renewed as they hurt European producers such as Philips <PHG.AS> which have invested in China.

But the largest producer of energy-saving lamps in the EU, Osram, part of German industrial group Siemens <SIEGn.DE>, wants the duties to run for another five years.

"I understand the arguments of the producers in China and I also understand the arguments of the workers in the European factories that will lose their jobs," said Verheugen, who is also from Germany.

"What is the community interest here? Is the community interest to save the jobs in the only company that is still in Europe and produces these things. Or is the community interest to increase cheap imports from China?"

The EU's community interest test is used in anti-dumping cases to ensure duties to help manufacturers do not hurt the EU's broader interests.

Mandelson has questioned whether the test should be changed to reflect better the interests of European companies seeking to remain competitive by using cheap imports or investing outside the EU.

The lightbulbs proposal faces a test next Thursday when it is due to be put to trade experts from EU countries.

Verheugen said he would make up his mind whether to support the plan after hearing the views of member states and said the Commission, the EU's executive, would then come up with a solution. The duties push up the price of energy-saving bulbs from China by as much as 66 percent, at time when the EU is chasing ambitious energy savings targets to fight climate change.

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