The government intends to revise the controversial departure tax next year to prevent the issue from ending up before the European Court of Justice, although this does not necessarily mean the tax will be abolished.

Malta has sent a written commitment to the European Commission stating that "there will be a revision of the departure tax during the course of 2008, removing the discriminatory aspect of the tax", a Commission official told The Times.

A government spokesman said: "We have decided to accept the Commission's claims and not to go to court over this issue. We have already informed Brussels of our intention to make the necessary changes next year".

The Commission maintains that the tax, which currently stands at Lm10 (€23.3), is discriminatory as it is only levied on air passengers who start an international journey from Malta. The tax, therefore, puts an unfair burden on residents and makes it more difficult for them to receive and provide services in other member states.

The government has not yet decided whether to abolish the tax completely or to amend the law to make it non-discriminatory.

Instead of abolishing it, it could choose to impose the tax on all passengers both departing and arriving. However, even if it were to lower the tax, the government would have to consider the impact on tourism of such a measure.

The EU executive had been communicating with Malta over the issue for almost a year. The first letter of formal warning was issued in July 2006, followed by a reasoned opinion the following December.

The government had, however, decided to retain the tax, even if it halved it from its previous level of Lm20 (€46.6) from the beginning of June.

Last July, the European Commission rejected the arguments made by the Maltese authorities in response to its two earlier legal warnings and decided to move forward to the third and last stage of the EU's infringement proceedings by lodging a formal complaint to the European Court of Justice.