BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuter) - Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said on Tuesday she could only start an anti-dumping inquiry into exports of Norwegian salmon to the EU if she received a formal complaint. She was speaking to reporters after holding talks with Norwegian Fisheries Minister Jan Henry Olsen. Asked whether she could assure Oslo that the Commission would not impose any other measures against Norway besides the minimum import price on salmon already in place, Bonino said: "No, I cannot assure (that)." The Commission recently imposed a minimum price of 3,400 Ecus per tonne of salmon after the market had been disrupted by Norwegian over-production, hurting especially Irish and Scottish producers. This came after Euro-MPs complained late last year about unfair competition and urged the Commission to take action against the dumping of Norwegian salmon. Norwegian salmon exports to the EU rose 27 percent in the first nine months of 1995. Salmon prices on the EU market fell 21 percent over the same period.

Salmon production is an important source of employment in many of the EU's least-developed rural areas, especially in Scotland and Ireland. Bonino said the minimum price would last until the end of June and she hoped that the market situation would have improved by then. "But if that is not the case, certainly, I will have to study some solution," she said, adding that the minimum price had not worked well because some importers had broken the rules. A problem was that she could not find any other measures. "If it existed I will do it, unfortunately I cannot find other measures." "I'm (almost) even ready to start an anti-dumping (proceeding) but the real problem is that I need a formal complaint," Bonino added. Fishermen could file a complaint but this had not yet happened. "I don't know why," she said. "So for the moment I'm a litte bit stuck." Bonino said Olsen had presented new measures he wanted to introduce to improve the situation. "We took notice of it and are very interested in seeing the result," a

Commission spokesman said later. On a separate issue, Bonino said a Norwegian decision to extend a coastal zone in which EU fishermen could not fish herring to 40 miles from 12 miles would be discussed on Friday at a meeting in Oslo. But she regretted that the Commission had not been informed about the action in January and that it therefore had not had the possibility to inform other EU member states. Bonino said she hoped the Commission and Norway would be able to establish "a new way of consultation and communication."