"The fishing fleet must be reduced."

A final declaration from the talks "encourages states to use a precautionary principle in setting quotas" to avoid plundering the seas, he said.

Over-fishing threatens to wipe out species such as cod, hake, haddock and mackerel in the North Sea.

Armando Astudillo, the head of the European Commission's Environment and Health unit and in charge of a new common fishery policy, said that EU fleets would have to be cut by 30-50 percent in the long term to protect marine resources.

"To go on as before would simply mean natural death to the fishing industry," Astudillo told Reuters.

He said that the European Commission would announce a legal framework on April 17 to reconcile environmental concerns with long-term planning of total permitted fish catches.

"The fishing industry will then be able to plan beyond a single year, and some (fishermen) will find that they have to do something else in a few years' time," he said.

NEW FISHERIES POLICY IN 2002

Astudillo predicted strong opposition from the fishing industry to cuts in quotas and jobs but was optimistic that EU member states would adopt the legal framework for a new common fisheries policy before the end of 2002.

The North Sea conference gathered representatives from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the European Union to agree common policies for the protection of the North Sea environment.

The Fifth International Conference for the Protection of the North Sea also called for improved fishing methods to prevent trawlers catching the wrong species of fish as a by-catch to their quotas.

The countries present agreed to take joint steps to prevent the spread of alien species, such as Chinese mitten crabs or Japanese seaweed, which are spread by vessels flushing out ballast tanks after sailing half-way round the world.

And London came under fire for discharges of the radioactive substance technetium-99 from a British nuclear reprocessing plant near Sellafield, northern England.

British Environment Minister Michael Meacher made no concessions but said the matter would be discussed by the British government within the next two months.

He also agreed that a rapid decline in fish stocks would force cuts in total allowable catches set by the European Union and non-EU members like Norway.