Committee Chairman Mike Rogers told U.S. reporters during a press conference that the panel was stopping short of urging an outright boycott of mobile phones and other handheld devices made by Huawei and ZTE, but warned that devices involve processing of data on a large scale could be used for corporate espionage.

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Mr Basescu's team must now decide whether to press for a No vote in the referendum, or a boycott, in the hope of keeping turnout below 50%.

BBC: Alarm over Romania's bitter Ponta-Basescu turf war

"The State of Israel has for years been dealing with boycotts from Arab nations, but now we are talking about a homegrown boycott, " said the author of the legislation, lawmaker, Zeev Elvin, the Associated Press news agency reported.

BBC: Israeli lawmakers pass West Bank settlement boycott law