Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino yesterday hit out at environmental NGOs Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd for using "private armies" to "attack legal fishing operations", during a high level meeting in Luxembourg.

Mr Pullicino was speaking at a meeting of the agriculture and fisheries council, where he emphasised the role of member state inspectors and fishing control agencies as having the exclusive right for enforcement.

In the past weeks, Maltese fishing operations were attacked by Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd vessels, which confronted the fishermen in a bid to free the tuna which the NGOs believe will become extinct through overfishing.

During two separate incidents a Greenpeace activist and a Maltese diver were injured.

The same meeting discussed the European Commission's aim of reaching the maximum sustainable yield for fish stocks until 2015 and fishing law reform.

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