In a special report, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) urged the European Commission to impose a total ban on cod fishing in northern waters until there was "clear evidence of recovery of the stock" to a sustainable size.

"Given the very low stock size, the recent poor recruitments (renewal) and continued high fishing mortality despite management efforts to promote stock recovery, ICES recommends a closure of all fisheries for cod as a targeted species or by-catch," it said in its report.

The Commission, the EU's executive body which manages fish policy, earlier this month highlighted the need for urgent action to protect the 15-nation bloc's cod fisheries.

It has been waiting for the ICES report to examine the full extent of damage to stocks in northern waters and has already proposed recovery plans for both cod and hake.

The plans envisage reductions in cod and hake catches and set targets for stock sizes. EU fisheries ministers will discuss the proposals next month.

But ICES believes the Commission's action plan will not increase cod stocks at the speed needed. "The proposed rebuilding plan cannot be accepted as likely to lead to safe and rapid rebuilding of this cod stock," it said.

The Commission already plans to carry out a radical reform of the EU's entire Common Fisheries Policy by capping traditionally high quotas, usually set at the end of each year by species and area.

The conservation group WWF severely criticised the fisheries ministers for failing to agree on a recovery plan.

"The long running annual circus of quota setting and the inability of member states to find the political will to agree decisive action to save overfished cod stocks has pushed North Sea cod and the fishing communities that depend on it to the edge of ruin," WWF fisheries campaigner Heike Vesper said.

"Let this (the proposed ban on cod fishing) be a warning to those countries that oppose reform of the Common Fisheries Policy," she added in a statement.

The cod, a popular meal in Britain served with chips, was celebrated in a 1997 bestselling book by Mark Kurlansky called "Cod, A biography of The Fish That Changed the World."