Hunters' outdoor meeting on Wednesday

Hunters are expected to turn up in droves on Wednesday for a "meeting" in Rabat in the wake of the much-anticipated hunting law changes.

"It's a meeting, not a protest," Lino Farrugia, secretary of the hunters' federation told The Times last night, emphasising, however, that hunters are angry that they are being treated like second-class citizens.

The hunters are at loggerheads with the government and BirdLife over the proposed amendments to hunting laws submitted by the federation earlier this year.

The Environment Ministry said on Thursday it would announce its stand over the matter "in the near future".

The hunters are believed to be demanding the right to trap plovers, turtle doves and quail, to have no restrictions on the size of the nets used for trapping and to be given the right to hunt closer to land from seacraft.

Mr Farrugia said the amendments as proposed by the federation were drawn up with the help of a lawyer specialising in EU affairs, who made sure they were in line with what had been negotiated between the government and the EU.

"The Prime Minister told us his government will stick to its pre-EU promises with the hunters. But hunters simply feel betrayed," he said, reiterating the clashes his members were having with the police over grey areas of the law.

Insisting that FKNK would not be fooled, Mr Farrugia said hunters were not expecting anything out of the ordinary, other than what had been promised.

He said he believed Wednesday's meeting would rally a lot of interest from hunters who are demanding to know where they stand. The federation is in fact holding the meeting outdoors since there is no hall which can take the crowd "if every hunter turns up".

"All we intend to do is to explain our position to the members and we will say especially what we are expecting from the amendments," Mr Farrugia said.