Was the OM606 engine short-lived in Europe?

[DieselAddict]

I was in Europe in September for a few days and I was quite amazed when I saw a W210 CDI. I didn't even know such cars existed. Someone else on this board also posted the following link to Mercedes diesel history and on that page you can see Europe has had the CDI technology since 1997, with the first direct-injected model on sale in 1996! Since the OM606 engine made its debut in Europe in the 1994 model year, this means it survived for only 3 model years over there before being replaced by the CDI if I'm understanding this correctly. My question is why did MB import the OM606 engine into the USA until the 1999 model year if the CDI was already widely available in Europe and supposedly it's a better engine?
http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom/0,,0-5-466459-1-468998-1-0-0-466468-0-0-135-7145-0-0-0-0-0-0-0,00.html