The hunters' federation this morning made a fresh appeal to the Prime Minister to open the Spring hunting season.

The season has been kept closed pending a decision by the European Court of Justice, but the federation is complaining that the decision is taking too long in coming.

Federation public relations officer Joe Perici Calascione in a press conference outside Castille said that the federation had agreed with the government that all sides should respect the court and not appear to be trying to in any way hinder or apply pressure on it while it decided a European Commission request to ban spring hunting this year pending a final decision.

Such interim measures were only requested in matters of urgency, Mr Perici Calascione said, but the Spring season was supposed to have opened two weeks ago and the court had not taken a decision yet. He asked why the court was being indifferent to the mental anguish of thousands of Maltese and Gozitans.

He said every day that went by was a day taken from the life of the hunters, who had been promised, in writing, by the Maltese authorities before the 2003 elections, that spring hunting would be allowed.

The Prime Minister, he said, needed to take up the reins and objectively analyse the situation. The government had been elected by the people to, first and foremost, safeguard their interests. Hunters, he said, felt humiliated by what was happening to them because of foreigners.

In the same way as their forefathers, the hunters felt that they should resist in order to protect their culture and tradition.

He also accused BirdLife Malta of continuing to rub salt in the wound through a misleading publicity campaign.