RABAT, Sept 15 (Reuter) - Morocco's King Hassan held a surprise meeting with European Union Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino which showed that deadlocked talks on a fishing accord had been taken to the highest level.

Moroccan state radio said Fisheries Minister Mustapha Sahel and the king's economic adviser, Andre Azoulay, were also present at the meeting late on Thursday night.

Moroccan officials had said Bonino would meet only Sahel during her two-day visit.

She arrived earlier on Thursday saying she wanted to explore ways of moving forward with negotiations on a new fisheries accord with Morocco.

Bonino is due to hold a news conference on Friday after further talks with Sahel.

A sixth round of negotiations in Brussels ended in deadlock last month after Morocco rejected as unacceptable the EU response to its demands for steep cuts in the catches of squid and octopus.

Morocco had demanded a cut of 65 percent in squid and octopus quotas, which the EU deems excessive.

A previous three-year accord expired in April and Morocco ordered the 730 mainly Spanish EU fleet to leave its Atlantic and Mediterranean waters.

Rabat has argued that some fish stocks face extinction and wants to preserve a resource that provides 15 percent of its export revenue.

The fisheries accord with Morocco is the EU's most important external fisheries agreement and provides jobs for 40,000 fishermen and fish processors in Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands.

Bonino angered Morocco when she suggested after the talks collapsed last month that the EU review its wider relations with Morocco, which is negotiating separately an association accord with the 15-nation bloc.

In July, King Hassan made clear his ultimate goal was full EU membership.

The king's intervention at this stage suggests Morocco does not want to jeopardise its future relations with the EU and that the two sides are likely to find a compromise which would allow the talks to resume.

REUTER