Carp bought in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland contained "worryingly high" levels of phthalate, including one type of the compound of which little is known of its impact on human health, said the head of Greenpeace's toxic chemicals campaign in the Czech Republic, Yannick Vicaire.

Phthalates, often found in plastics, are blamed for damaging male sexual development and causing infertility, but have also been linked to liver damage, Vicaire said. There are no safe limits because the compound accumulates in the body, he added.

"In the case of the Czech Republic laboratory tests showed that carp from three different stores in Prague contained different types of phthalates in quantities far exceeding the detection limits," the environmental group said in a news release.

Results in the three other countries were broadly similar, although some samples in Austria and Poland contained particularly high phthalate concentrations, Vicaire said.

Greenpeace released its survey findings on the eve of a meeting of European Union ministers on Monday and Tuesday. Ministers are due to discuss the controversial "REACH" proposal for testing the danger to human health and the environment of thousands of chemicals.

Members of the European Parliament voted for the proposal, attacked by industry for its wide scope and high cost, at first reading in Strasbourg on November 17. The competition council will be the first opportunity for national governments to react.

The environment group hopes its findings will persuade governments in central Europe to back the "REACH" proposal. "If it is properly framed, the proposal would ban phthalates," Vicaire explained.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.