By Robert Hart

MADRID, March 10 (Reuter) A Spanish minister on Friday demanded European Union (EU) sanctions on Canada for seizing a Galician fishing boat in international waters off Newfoundland.

"It is quite impossible that any country should allow itself the luxury of machine gunning a boat fishing in international waters," said Xoan Caamano, fisheries minister of the northern Spanish region of Galicia.

In a statement issued in the Galician capital of Santiago de Compostela he said EU authorities should exert pressure to change the voting system in the North Atlantic Fishing Organisation (NAFO), where Canada had imposed the turbot quota at the root of the conflict.

Angry EU ambassadors met in emergency session in Brussels on Friday and demanded that Canada immediately release the Spanish oat Estai, which was chased down and fired on by a Canadian gunboats on Thursday.

They asked the European Commission to draw up a list of potential retaliatory measures against Canada.

Spanish national radio said on Friday the Estai had been taken into the Newfoundland port of St Johns. The captain had been arrested but the crew had been released.

Spanish Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Luis Atienza on Thursday described the Canadian action against the Estai as "premeditated and cold blooded piracy."

Spain had earlier ordered a naval vessel to head for the North Atlantic to protect Spanish boats after Canada threatened to enforce a ban on turbot fishing by foreign fishermen.

The Spanish foreign ministry termed the arrest a flagrant violation of international rights and said it had sent "the most energetic protest" to the Canadian government.

The Spanish cabinet was meeting in regular session on Friday and expected to discuss the fishing dispute, although it was not on the formal agenda.

Galicia's Caamano said the government should ask Canada's diplomats in Madrid to clarify whether it had been an official decision by Canadian authorities to open fire on the Estai or if it was taken unilaterally by the patrol boat captain.

"With its intolerant attitude, what (Canada) wants is to show clearly, overwhelmingly and by force who is in charge in NAFO, without respect for the rights of other member countries when it does not suit them," Caamano said.

Late last year Spain was involved in a "tuna war" in the Bay of Biscay over allegations of illegal use of drift nets by French, Irish and British fishing boats in the area.