Brussels: European Union environment ministers agreed today not to impose carbon dioxide emissions quotas on airlines until 2012,one year later than EU lawmakers had sought, the bloc s Portuguese presidency said.

According to a long-sought compromise, airlines will be subject the quotas not only on intra-European routes but also on all flights leaving from or flying to the EU.

The plans have sounded alarm bells in Washington, which has threatened to launch legal action if Europe goes ahead with them.

"The eyes of the world are upon us. We have to send out a strong signal to the rest of the world," Portuguese Environment Minister Francisco Nunes Correia said while chairing talks with counterparts in Brussels.

EU governments will now have to find a compromise with the European Parliament, which still has to approve the plans in a second reading.

Under the plans, airlines would have to meet quotas either by reducing their emissions or buying carbon dioxide credits from other industries.

The airline industry warned earlier this year that some carriers survival would be at risk because the sector would have to spend over 65 billion dollars between 2011 and 2022 buying up credits from more fuel-efficient industries to meet their quotas.

EU planes account for about half the industry s carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

Aircraft carbon dioxide emissions account for only about three percent of the global total but they have increased by 87 per cent since 1990,according to the European Commission.

Source : PTI