By Jonathan Clayton

LUXEMBOURG, April 10 (Reuter) EU foreign ministers called on Monday for greater efforts to end a bitter row with Canada over North Atlantic fish stocks, stressing the need to avert the danger of more "piracy" on the high seas.

The ministers urged Commission officials to hold more talks to try and clinch a deal "as quickly as possible" in a row that has battered relations between the bloc and Canada.

"There was a strong plug for EU solidarity and everyone welcomed progress made so far," one spokesman said.

He said Spain expressed disappointment at a proposed outline compromise, but indicated there was still room for some movement on Madrid's part.

EU Commission President Jacques Santer was reported to have told Spain it was unlikely that Madrid would succeed in obtaining for the EU half the total 1995 quota of 27,000 tonnes for fishing in the area.

But Santer also told the meeting Canada's action on the high seas last month in seizing a Spanish trawler was indefensible. EU Fishing Commissioner Emma Bonino described it as "piracy".

Spain is resisting any attempt to reduce the EU's share of the total allowable catch of Greenland Halibut below 13,500 tonnes, which is already substantially lower than the amount it caught in 1994.

Madrid says such action would threaten the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in northern Spain's Galicia region.

Ottawa says the measures are needed to allow threatened stocks on the once rich fields of the North Banks off Newfoundland to recover.

A spokesman said the EU wanted to get a deal before Easter, but no new talks with Canada which has ruled out any more changes to the quotas were scheduled.

Diplomats said British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, whose country has said it would not support trade reprisals against Ottawa, spoke of the need to pursue negotiations and find a settlement.

"He spoke of the difficulties and emotions raised by fishing disputes, the pros and cons of an agreement are very clear and he said we now have to get on with it (finding an agreement)," one diplomat said, adding that several speakers had stressed the need for restraint on both sides.

EU sources say a clash last week between a Canadian patrol boat and a Spanish trawler off Newfoundland had again caused tempers to flare and made public concessions even less likely.