Finalised in the early hours of Thursday by EU fisheries ministers in Brussels, the quotas do not include an outright ban on cod fishing in waters surrounding the European Union.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) director Tony Long told BBC radio that the fisheries agreement was merely the latest example of "a compromise that has gone too far now".

He said: "We have got to wake up and realise that the cod stock has pretty well now disappeared.

"Talking about five days reduction here or 15.0-percent reduction there is just avoiding the reality of a collapsed fishery."

"The only way we can face up to this reality is a total ban on cod fishing, a time for recovery, protected areas," he added.

"Other species are threatened as well. Clearly there are some very destructive fishing practices in the North Sea."

Britain's environment minister Jim Knight, defending the deal, said cod was not being fished to extinction in European waters.

"We have struck a good deal both for the marine environment and for the United Kingdom fishing industry, and obviously if we haven't got a good deal for stocks we don't have a good deal for ... that industry," he said.

"Whenever science has suggested we need to reduce fishing pressure on particular stocks, we have agreed those reductions."

Ross Finnie, environment minister in the Scottish parliament, said Thursday's deal was a "successful package".

"Our priority was to secure a balanced deal which recognises the vulnerability of the cod stock as well as providing improved economic opportunities for Scotland's fleet," he said.

But the Scottish National Party, which draws much of its voter support from constituencies which include North Sea fishing ports, said Scotland's fishermen "face a bleaker Christmas".

"On top of all the cuts of recent years, these latest cuts will impact on fishermen who only just managed to stay afloat in 2005," said the separatist party's fisheries spokesman Richard Lochhead.

"The truth is that they will never get justice with a (British) government that views fishing as a low priority and while fishing policy is decided in Brussels."

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