The ban was prompted by the high, although shrinking, number of dolphins killed by the Mexican tuna fleet.

China is building a 50-boat tuna fleet for Fiji - a reflection of China's interest in the huge fisheries of the Pacific.

By 1951 the tuna fleet had 700 boats and 2700 unionized fishermen, while the five local canneries employed more than 3,000 workers.

Each side thinks it has the better scheme to protect dolphins that are incidentally trapped and killed by the giant nets used by tuna fleets.

Last year's catch by the American tuna fleet, he said, represented 300 million cans of fish.

The ban was imposed on the grounds that dolphins were being killed by the tuna fleet.

The cost of refitting the Mexican tuna fleet to use dolphin-safe nets and techniques is put at $25 million.

This will have a positive impact on the visibility of the EU's tuna fleet in the Atlantic and will increase competitiveness.

Mexico and Venezuela refuse to release estimates of the number of dolphins killed by their tuna fleets.

The 1988 law required an embargo on any nation whose dolphin-killing rate was more than twice the rate of the American tuna fleet.