UK's Osborne says rallying support to tackle cheap steel imports

LONDON (Reuters) - British finance minister George Osborne said he was talking to other governments about taking action to prevent the dumping of cheap steel after Britain's biggest producer Tata Steel put its operations up for sale.

The British government has come in for criticism for its handling of a crisis in Britain's steel sector after Tata Steel announced it planned to exit the country in the face of cheap Chinese imports as well as high costs.

Speaking from Paris where he was attending talks with other Group of 20 officials, Osborne said the government had already cut energy prices and would seek to make sure that British steel was used in British construction projects.

"We're having conversations with other governments, like I'm doing here in Paris, to make sure we take action against unfair, cheap steel imports," he told Sky News television.

(Reporting by Kate Holton and Stephen Addison, editing by William Schomberg)