Coup puts fisheries aid in doubt

THE European Union's aid and development commissioner, Louis Michel, wants to suspend a major fisheries agreement with Mauritania because of political unrest.

Martin Selmayr, a European Commission spokesman, said the bloc should freeze its single biggest fishing deal after presidential guardsmen seized the Mauritanian president in a coup earlier this month when he sacked several top army officers.

Brussels had allocated 156 million (£230 million) of aid for the country for 2008-13 and agreed to pay 75.25 million a year for the right to fish in Mauritanian waters over the next four years. The decision will be taken by the EU's member governments next month.