BC FISH MINISTERS/Foreign ministers see no end to EU Canada row

LUXEMBOURG, April 10 (Reuter) EU foreign ministers held

out little prospect of an imminent end to a bitter row with

Canada over fishing rights in the North Atlantic on Monday as

Spain again accused Ottawa of violence.

Arriving for a General Affairs Council expected to focus on

eastern Europe and conflicts in former Yugoslavia and Chechnya,

the ministers said they did not foresee much progress towards

ending the EU Canada dispute.

"Spain has already moved a lot, but Canada has only moved

violently," Spanish Foreign Minister Javier Solana told waiting

journalists in answer to a question about whether Madrid was

ready to make more concessions.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jacques Poos said the issue was

on the agenda, but he believed an accord was now snagged more on

the question of quota shareout than on any political

differences.

"We will discuss it and try for a solution, but if it is

about quotas it may be for fish ministers (to resolve)," he said

as he entered the conference centre.

Over the weekend, there were no direct talks between EU

representatives and Canada, but Commission experts were reported

to be putting the finishing touches to an outline proposal which

would greatly reduce Spain's permitted catch.

But Commission officials added that no "face to face" talks

with Canadian officials were planned.

The draft proposal would cut Spain's total permitted catch

in the North Atlantic by around 75 percent this year compared to

1994 and rigorously step up on boat control and inspection.

Ottawa says such measures are needed to allow threatened

stocks on the once rich fields of the North Banks off

Newfoundland to recover, but Madrid says it would put at risk

the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in northern Spain's

Galicia region.

Diplomats said ministers could be asked to look at ways to

try to persuade Madrid to accept a compromise to end a dispute

triggered when Canada seized a Spanish trawler in early March.

But sources said a clash between a Canadian patrol boat and

a Spanish trawler off Newfoundland on Wednesday had again caused

tempers to flare and made public concessions even less likely.

Diplomats said it might be possible to raise Spain's quota

by giving it unused quotas now offered to other participants in

the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation.