By Kate Dourian

RABAT, Aug 29 (Reuter) - Morocco said on Tuesday it would

not allow threats by the European Union to force it into

submission after the collapse of fishing talks, but indicated it

did not want a total rupture with its biggest export market.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ennahdi el-Idrissi said remarks

by certain EU officials would not resolve problems over fishing

talks, which broke up in acrimony in Brussels on Monday.

"We regret that certain EU officials found it necessary to

make declarations on this subject," Idrissi said. "As a matter

of fact, these declarations only led to confusion and will not

help in any way achieve a definitive solution to this problem.

He was reacting to news from Brussels that talks on a

three-year fishing accord had collapsed without agreement after

Morocco turned down the EU's final offer on the extent of cuts

in quotas it would accept in a new deal.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said she would propose

that the EU review its relations with Rabat.

Spanish fishermen, who had the lion's share of the 730

licences granted by Morocco under the previous accord, have

threatened a blockade of Moroccan goods transiting Spain.

Morocco, arguing that some fish stocks are near extinction,

demanded cuts of up to 65 percent in catches of octopus and

squid as a condition for signing a new accord that would allow

the EU fleet to return to Morocco, whose Atlantic waters are

among the richest in the world for shellfish.

Bonino said Morocco had rejected the Commission's final

offer of a 25 percent cut over three years.

"Morocco, which remains ready to honour its traditional ties

with the European Union, nevertheless refuses to have a solution

dictated to it under threats as it will not allow itself to be

influenced by the blockades imposed by some Spanish fishing

organisations..." Idrissi said.

His remarks showed Morocco did not want the dispute over

fishing rights to derail parallel negotiations on a broad trade

and cooperation agreement, which the EU is discussing separately

with countries on its southern flank.

France and Spain are Morocco's biggest trading partners and

Moroccan exports to EU countries in 1994 accounted for 60

percent of total exports.

Moroccan newspapers carried banner headlines praising the

Moroccan negotiating team's rejection of EU counter-proposals

for cuts in fish quotas and even the opposition press rallied

behind the government's position.

"Morocco is not in the habit of accepting ultimatums, which

hark back to the age of colonialism," al-Bayane newspaper of the

Progressive Socialist Party (PPS) said. The accord with

Morocco is the EU's most important external fisheries agreement,

providing a livelihood for 28,000 people in Spain, Portugal and

the Canary Islands.

The fishing accord gave Morocco, where 500,000 people rely

on the fishing industry for their jobs, preferential tariffs for

exports of tinned sardines to EU countries and earned it $130

million a year from licencing fees.

Moroccan exports of fish and canned fish were valued at six

billion dirhams ($700 million) last year, accounting for 15

percent of total exports.

REUTER