BC FISH EUROPE 1STLD (SCHEDULED)/EU, Canada meet on fish, overshadowed by threat (Adds EU reaction to Tobin remarks paras 2, 9 and 10 )

By Patrick Chalmers

BRUSSELS, April 11 (Reuter) The European Union and Canada tried again on Tuesday to resolve their North Atlantic fish dispute after Ottawa threatened action if they failed to reach agreement by Wednesday.

The European Commission retorted that it could not negotiate on the basis of an ultimatum.

"We are meeting with the EU this morning," Canadian External Affairs Department spokeswoman Jennifer Sloan said.

She told Reuters the talks concerned only the "presentational aspects" of the deal struck between the two sides last week but declined to enlarge on what that meant.

"We believe we had a negotiated settlement last Wednesday. The EU will certainly have to come back to us...but we will not discuss substance," Sloan said.

Foreign ministers from the 15 country EU failed to agree the deal at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, prompting Canadian Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin to threaten possible action by Wednesday to protect fish off his country's shores.

Tobin said Ottawa would "take whatever measures are deemed appropriate to fulfil the primary interest of the government of Canada to ensure the protection of this stock".

He declined to characterise his words as an ultimatum but expressed disappointment that the Union ministers had failed to approve a draft EU Canada agreement on sharing the harvest of turbot, or Greenland halibut.

"Mr Tobin has made a number of declarations in recent weeks and not all of these have always improved the negotiating climate," European Commission spokesman Joao Vale de Almeida told a news conference.

"We certainly cannot negotiate on the basis of an ultimatum. I am sure such an ultimatum doesn't exist," he said.

The long running fight for fish flared on March 9 when Canadian gunboats fired across the bows of a Spanish trawler, the Estai, before arresting it.

Canada accused Spain of endangering stocks by overfishing in the Grand Banks area. Madrid replied that the Estai was fishing in international waters and that Ottawa broke the law in seizing the vessel.

Aside from EU Canada contacts, internal Union meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday will need to thrash out a position which will satisfy Madrid. Spain faces severe pressure from its domestic fishing industry not to cave in over the turbot share out.

Madrid wants the EU to have 13,500 tonnes of the 1995 quota for the disputed area half the entire permitted catch, all of which would go to Spain and Portugal.

Spain, which alone netted more than twice as much as this last year, says anything less would threaten the livelihood of thousands of fishermen in its Galicia region.