Issuing the appeal, the international Wordwide Fund for Natureconservation organization said that 12 times as many sturgeon were poached from the Caspian as were caught legally, the main reason for a 40-fold plunge in the species' population there in the past 15 years.

"Like the balalaika, the matryoshka, vodka and the Kalashnikov, caviar is a symbol of Russia," WWF representative Alexei Vaisman said at a news conference in Moscow.

"But it is a symbol on the verge of disappearing forever," he added. "To save the sturgeon of the Caspian Sea from barbaric extermination by poachers, the WWF calls on Russians to not eat caviar this New Year's."

The WWF, together with the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, called earlier this month on western European governments to implement new caviar labelling rules to combat illegal trade, saying in a statement that Europe is "awash with illegal caviar."

Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev for his part said Russia should establish a state monopoly on the trade in sturgeon and its caviar in order to rein in a rampant underground market in the culinary delicacy.

Out of the total 1,200 tonnes of black caviar traded each year in Russia, just 10 tonnes are traded legally, Gordeyev said.

Environmentalists have long warned of the threat to sturgeon posed by a lack of proper regulation in the industry, particularly in the Caspian Sea, the source of 90 percent of the world's black caviar supplies.

In September the United States said it was suspending imports of highly prized beluga caviar after complaining of inaction by Caspian Sea states such as Iran and Russia to protect endangered sturgeon.

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.