By Peter Blackburn

REUTER 20/3/1995

BRUSSELS The European Commission said on Monday it was deeply dismayed by the lack of political progress in talks last week with Canada to try and settle a bitter fisheries dispute in the North Atlantic.

Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Andre Ouellet said on Saturday there was still a long way to go before a solution can be reached.

Canada recalled its chief negotiators to Ottawa on Friday after one day of discussions in Brussels and blocked a special meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (NAFO) which the EU and Poland requested for this week.

"The results of our political discussions are very disappointing," EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino told the European Parliament's fisheries committee.

Bonino said Canada had refused to withdraw legislation of March 3, which she said violated international law, extending its jurisdiction to EU vessels beyond its 200 mile limit.

Canada was maintaining a unilateral 60 day ban on fishing for Greenland halibut (turbot), which straddles Canadian and international waters.

It was also still rejecting the legal competence of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Bonino added in a tough statement.

But she said progress had been made last week on conservation and enforcement measures. "The results are better but they (technical measures) cannot be separated from (political) issues."

Bonino said most of the new measures, which include satellite surveillance, were foreseen in a 1992 bilateral fisheries agreement which Canada has never ratified.

Canadian fisheries experts have flown back to Canada for more detailed study of possible joint controls. No date has been set for another meeting but both sides remain in telephone contact.

Bonino said in reply to a question she hoped NAFO could still meet this month even though Canada continued to block efforts towards reaching a multilateral solution.

"It is essential to have rules otherwise you have the law of the jungle," she said.

Canada, which criticises NAFO's conservation and enforcement record, says a NAFO meeting this week would be premature.

A Commission spokesman earlier reiterated that Spanish and Portuguese fishing vessels have a legal right to catch Greenland halibut in the disputed area.

"EU vessels have full fishing rights in these waters," Fisheries spokesman Marco Zatterin told a news conference.