The United Nations set new export quotas on Tuesday for most types of caviar from the Caspian Sea region, partially lifting a one-year ban aimed at protecting the fish species from which the delicacy is taken.

The Caspian countries of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan can sell nearly 96 tons of caviar to the world market in 2007, said the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and flora (CITES) in Geneva.

The authorized amount is about 15 percent lower than the quotas for 2005, it added.

CITES said, however, that a ban on beluga, the most expensive type of caviar, will be maintained until a decision is made later in the year. It also kept the ban on two other caviar species - ship sturgeon and sterlet.

The United Nations banned caviar exports in 2006 because the five Caspian countries, the main producers of the expensive delicacy, failed to meet requirements, such as providing stock levels.

CITES said it lifted the ban in 2007 because the five producer states had agreed among themselves to cut the combined catch quotas for sturgeon, whose eggs make caviar, by 20 percent from 2005 levels.

The ban "undoubtedly helped to spur improvements to the monitoring programs and scientific assessments carried out jointly by the five Caspian neighbors," CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers said.

"The income earned from the sale of sturgeon products in 2007 should provide both an incentive and the means to pursue the long- term recovery of this commercially and ecologically valuable natural resource," he added.

Source: Xinhua