The hunter's federation criticised BirdLife Malta for discussing details of a confidential meeting of the Ornis Committee, which makes recommendations to the government on hunting.

The federation said BirdLife's move was intended to manipulate public opinion and influence the deliberations of the committee.

The committee is reviewing proposals on spring hunting in view of a decision by the European Court of Justice last year, which concluded, among other things, that Malta breached EU rules when it allowed hunting during spring since it joined the EU in 2004.

The ECJ ruled against Malta but conceded that the autumn season, in principle, did not really offer an alternative to spring, which the government interpreted as an opportunity to explore "very limited hunting, under strict controls".

The Ornis Committee is expected to make its recommendations after another meeting scheduled for today.

The Sunday Times has reported the comments by Birdlife Malta's executive director Tolga Temuge criticising the hunters' proposals.

He insisted that allowing spring hunting would again land Malta in Court, this time facing hefty fines to boot.

But the hunters' federation stressed that the ECJ had declared it was not apparent that the population of the two species they would like to hunt was below a satisfactory level.

It added that its proposals to the committee addressed the main points of the ECJ ruling, adding calculations it made were based on hard facts and statistics obtained from BirdLife International's records and other official sources, accessible to all.

"Consequently, we trust that the Ornis Committee will not be influenced by desperate last-minute attempts in the media aimed at confusing the issue," the federation said.