The package also cuts the number of days fisherman can spend at sea by 10 percent and includes measures to reduce the fishing fleets and to set up maritime sanctuaries for cod.

The agreement was struck after Germany dropped its opposition to small boats being included in the plan and Poland abandoned a demand to allow fishermen more time at sea.

One official said that quota monitoring would need to be stepped up drastically for the plan to work because real catches were already running 35 to 45 percent above existing limits.

Greenland fishing

Separately, the fisheries ministers also approved a new agreement with Greenland to allow European fishermen to keep casting their nets in the icy waters around the Arctic island until 2012.

Under the six-year agreement, the EU will pay 15.8 million euros ($21.1 million) per year to Greenland for the right to fish its waters and fishermen will pay more than two million euros a year for fishing licenses.

The agreement, which was already signed by the European Commission in December, went provisionally into force in January this year, but still needed member states' formal backing.

Protecting tuna and eel

On Monday, the EU agreed to measures to protect bluefin tuna and eel from overfishing, with stocks of both species dwindling due to their popularity with Asian consumers.

EU fisheries ministers reached separate agreements that will restrict how much bluefin tuna and eel fisherman can pull from the waters surrounding Europe.

Welcoming the deals, EU Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg said that they "mark an important step on the way to ensuring the sustainability of European fisheries."

"I am glad that the severely depleted eel and bluefin tuna stocks will shortly receive the protection that they so badly need," he added. "Indeed, this protection will not come one day too soon."

On tuna, the ministers backed plans to cut member states' fishing quotas for this year by 10 percent as part of a 15-year package to save the species, which has become a victim of its success with consumers.

Environmentalists have warned that tuna face eventual extinction if fishing continued at current rates to feed a worldwide fad for Japanese food such as sushi.

Under the measures, the amount of time fishing boats can be at sea will be limited to six months a year, while the minimum size of fish allowed to be taken was raised from 10 kilos (22 pounds) to 30 to help them reproduce.

The package, which will hit France, Italy and Spain particularly hard as they are the EU's biggest tuna fishing nations, is part of a broader global effort to protect tuna which was agreed in January in Japan.

Eel deal

The measures aim to boost stocks by ensuring that a minimum 40 percent of eel will not be fished when they leave rivers in western Europe to lay their eggs in the Sargasso Sea between the Caribbean and Florida.

Eel stocks have been in a freefall since 1980, plunging by 95-99 percent, according the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.

Young eel are exported from Europe to Asia, particularly Japan and China, where they are considered a great delicacy. Prices in Asia can rise above 1,000 euros per kilogram ($615 dollars per pound).