BlackBerry 's plea to the Canadian government to block Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC)'s $1.13 billion purchase of Nortel (NYSE: NT)'s prized LTE and CDMA unit appears to be fading with reports that Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't block the deal.

"There's a process, a process of review of purchases by foreign companies," Harper told reporters Wednesday. "And we will respect this process." Harper has been promoting free trade, and any attempt to inject government policies into the Nortel-Ericsson deal would run counter to his business and political philosophy.

However, RIM, which has urged the government to intervene in the Ericsson-Nortel deal, found something to like in Harper's comments. "The Prime Minister has acted in a way that could facilitate an outcome that serves the interests of all parties and of Canada," RIM said in a statement. RIM and Nortel are both headquartered in Ontario, and RIM has argued that government intervention in Ericsson's takeover of the Nortel assets would be in the best interests of Canada.

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— W. David Gardner, InformationWeek