A five-month-old European Parliament committee of inquiry into the Equitable Life pensions scandal has asked for more time for its investigation.

An interim report to be put to MEPs in Strasbourg next month says the inquiry - which started in February - should be extended to ensure a thorough examination of the case.

Equitable Life had to close to new business in 2000 after it emerged that it could not honour its life insurance and pension policies, slashing the value of customers' life savings.

A 2004 report by Lord Penrose described the company as the "author of its own misfortunes" and said over-generous payouts to policyholders had created a financial black hole amounting to billions of pounds. But it also criticised the way the company was regulated.

In February the special 22-strong European Parliament committee was given up to a year to gather evidence and deliver its findings, with the promise of an interim report about now.

Its author, Liberal Democrat MEP Diana Wallis, said today that the committee wanted more time to gather evidence, not least to enable its members to take account of a delayed report by the UK Parliamentary Ombudsman now due out in the autumn.

The inquiry's remit is to report on whether the UK Government failed in its obligation under EU law to adequately regulate Equitable Life in the period 1989-2000. Its mandate ordered the committee to "assess allegations according to which UK regulators consistently failed over a number of years, since at least 1989, to protect policy holders by exercising rigorous supervision of accounting and provisioning practices and of the financial situation of Equitable Life".

Today the committee heard from senior officials from the UK Treasury, the FSA (Financial Services Authority), the GAD (Government Actuary's Department), and the Irish regulator.

Afterward Ms Wallis said: "The UK and Irish regulators present assured the Committee of their Governments' compliance with EU law, and of the adequacy of the level of supervision of Equitable. However, they failed to explain how so many policy holders fell through cracks in the system.

"In too many cases, this resulted in a denial of justice."

She added: "We must ensure that the supervisory bodies within different member states are not allowed to continually shift responsibility away from one another."

Conservative MEP Sir Robert Atkins said: "We continue to explore the fault-lines and we are beginning to draw conclusions. The inquiry continues."