In September's vote, 53 per cent approved OOXML, well short of the two-thirds majority required, while 18 voted against OOXML, pushing it just over the maximum allowed no vote ratio.

Thomas was unable to comment on what Microsoft is expecting those countries that abstained or voted no will do after the BRM. But he did comment on the concerns of Australia and New Zealand's standards bodies, who abstained and voted no respectively, saying both had done "an incredible amount of hard work" to make sure their concerns were represented in the specification.

But the road to Geneva has become a little rocky for Microsoft recently. OOXML's major commercial opponents, Google and IBM, have been heavily campaigning against the format, and the Wall Street Journal's recent report that European regulators will be examining whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws during the OOXML standardisation process has added to the negative publicity.

The European Free Software Foundation President, George Greve, claimed that votes on ISO certification by national bodies in the US and Europe have been influenced by Microsoft. (Read Greve's six questions to national standardisation bodies on OOXML)

"Microsoft has certainly been the target of a lot of accusations from folks like the Free Software Foundation. I think at this point it's all pretty new and we're just committed to working with the EU to work through their concerns and co-operate in anyway we can," Thomas said.

He believes the motives of OOXML's two biggest detractors, IBM and Google, are purely commercial.

"Absolutely. I think that especially the commercial entities that are behind the opposition and are the loudest voices against OOXML are most definitely commercially motivated."

Thomas said that many of Microsoft's competitors support the document format in the products,including IBM, Apple, Novell and Google.

"We're sitting back and taking a wait and see approach to what happens in Geneva. I fully expect that the vast majority of people who will sit in that room in Geneva will be very, very focused on taking the time allotted and making whatever adjustments to the specification need to be made to make sure the people are comfortable. I think the national bodies will then take a look at the end result and then make their determinations at that point."

Kate Evans from Standards Australia, said a Standards Australia representative will be attending the BRM in Geneva and that it will await the agreed resolutions from JTC1 after the BRM has concluded.

"The agreed resolutions will be reviewed with interested stakeholders through a technical working group. Standards Australia will then be able to review its position and reconsider its vote to abstain. The Communications, Information Technology and e-Commerce Standards Sector Board will endorse the final decision on Australia's position by the end of March," she said.