"Following two years of decrease, emissions of greenhouse gases increased by almost 3 percent in 2007. Norwegian emissions have never been higher," Statistics Norway said in a statement. The previous record was 54.8 million in 2004.

Flaring of natural gas by StatoilHydro at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at Melkoya in Arctic Norway, part of the Snoehvit field development that opened in late 2007, was the main contributor.

"Slightly more than 1.6 million tonnes carbon dioxide were emitted from Melkoya in 2007, of which the main part was due to flaring due to production difficulties," it said.

"The emissions are expected to be about 1 million tonnes carbon dioxide when the production runs as planned," it added.

"Emissions from other parts of the petroleum industry continued to decrease in 2007 due to lower production of crude oil," it said.

Under Kyoto, Norway has said that it will cut emissions by 9 percent below 1990 levels on average during the five-year period 2008-12, unilaterally sharpening an original Kyoto goal of no more than a one percent rise.

Tuesday's figures indicate Norway will have to rely heavily on buying emissions quotas abroad, for instance by investing in clean energy projects in developing nations, to meet its Kyoto target.

Government projections indicate that emissions may rise to 58.5 million tonnes in 2010. If emissions were at 2010 levels during 2008-12, Norway would have to buy emissions quotas for 42 million tonnes, it said.

Norway has also promised to make its economy carbon neutral by 2030, by when any domestic emissions will be offset by purchases of carbon credits or measures to bury greenhouse gases in porous rocks.