By Peter BlackburnLUXEMBOURG, June 10 (Reuter) - European Union fisheries ministers on Monday attacked proposals for sharp cuts in fishing fleets to protect dwindling stocks. Britain insisted the EU must first deal with "quota hoppers" -- boats from one EU state which register in another in order to be able to take part of that country's fish quota. Others said the proposals to reduce fishing capacity by up to 40 percent over six years were excessive and more should be done to cushion the impact on fishing communities. "I made it clear to colleagues that the U.K. fishing industry is not prepared to consider any further reductions until real progress is made on the issue of quota hoppers," British Fisheries Minister Tony Baldry told a news briefing. Diplomats said the strongest attacks came from the major fishing nations which stood to lose the most jobs. Baldry's French colleague Philippe Vasseur was categoric. "France has already made huge efforts and considers the Commission's approach unacceptable," Vass

eur said. "It would endanger the socio-economic balance of coastal regions." Ireland's Defence and Marine Minister Sean Barrett, who takes over the presidency of the EU Fisheries Council in July, said the new programme was too vague. "(It) must be focused and cannot rely on the broad brush approach," he said, adding that cuts must be targeted on fleets which are overfishing critical stocks. But Germany expressed some support for the proposal. "We support it in principle," German State Secretary for Fisheries Franz-Josef Feiter told reporters. Diplomats said Denmark also gave broad backing. EU Fisheries Commissioner Emma Bonino said ministers had insisted on more aid to fishermen to help them adjust but no-one disagreed that fish stocks were in a critical state. On quota hoppers, Bonino told a closing news conference: "We have suggested time and time again they (British) can take (non-discriminatory) measures to reduce the impact." These include requiring part of the catches to be landed in British ports and

respecting British social security rules. Bonino noted that it could take a long time to deal with quota hoppers if Britain insisted on taking the issue to the inter-governmental conference on the reform of the EU. The Commission will now start bilateral talks with member states on cuts in national fleets and hopes to get a framework agreement at the next ministerial meeting on October 14. Baldry said 156 foreign vessels, mainly Spanish, registered in Britain caught around 20 percent of Britain's fish quota but landed the fish in Spanish ports. "One has the ludicrous situation of Spanish boats leaving Spanish ports with Spanish crews and Spanish skippers going out and catching fish and returning to Spain...the fish comes off the U.K. national quota," he said. The British government was angered when the European Court of Justice ruled in March that Britain could be liable to compensate foreign quota-hoppers for losses suffered when Britain tried to ban them. British fishermen complained that the proposed cuts

did not distinguish between old and new vessels. "The relative age of different fleets should be taken into account," Barrie Deas, Chief Executive of the national Federation of Fishermen's Organisations, told Reuters.