MUMBAI, May 22 (Reuters) - VanEck is looking at France, Italy, Spain and the Nordics as potential growth regions for its European exchange-traded fund (ETF) market to tap into still-limited usage in these countries, the asset manager's Europe chief executive said on Wednesday.

The New York-headquartered firm will continue to rely on the more-established UK, Netherlands and German markets to underpin growth in its ETF business in Europe, the firm's EU CEO Martijn Rozemuller told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.

VanEck is a global investment manager that primarily issues ETF products and manages more than $100 billion in assets worldwide.

It plans to add two smaller-sized offices in London and Milan this year to cater to these markets, Rozemuller said. It currently has European offices in Frankfurt, Zurich and Amsterdam.

The firm recently crossed $10 billion in assets managed under European ETFs, Rozemuller said, adding that he was optimistic for growth in defence and semiconductors, as well as uranium and nuclear technology, along with a broader, more diversified equity exposure.

Rozemuller said the ETF market in Europe is heavily fragmented, and more difficult and expensive to do business in compared to the United States, but this could change with the formation of a capital markets union (CMU).

The European Securities and Markets Authority on Wednesday called for fast-tracking a CMU - stalled for nearly a decade, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the union has to be completed in the next Commission, as this one comes to the end of its five-year term.

Rozemuller said the market in Europe was made up of different exchanges, with most countries requiring ETFs to be listed locally, adding to regulatory and translation costs.

The CMU would be "a big step forward," he said.

Nevertheless, Europe's ETF market continues to grow, with $1.91 trillion in assets at the end of April, according to data from research and consultancy firm ETFGI, recording their 19th month of inflows in April. (Join GMF, a chat room hosted on LSEG Messenger, for live interviews: https://lseg.group/3TN7SHH)

(Reporting by Divya Chowdhury and Savio Shetty in Mumbai, and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ros Russell)