RESEARCH published today by North-East academics supports Prime Minister Tony Blair's call for Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to be reformed.

In the first comprehensive study of the effect of the CAP on Europe's regions, a team from the universities of Newcastle and Aberdeen has concluded that the distribution of more than 90 billion Euros in farming subsidies will lead to greater inequalities between the rich and poor regions of Europe.

The study found that, even after the CAP reforms agreed in 2003/2004, rich, core regions in Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands were collectively taking a greater proportion of the available funding than poorer, peripheral regions in Spain, Italy, Poland and southern and eastern Europe.

According to the report's authors, who have published the findings of their two-year study in a book out today, these outcomes work against the European Union's objectives, which are to reduce inequalities between the richer and poorer regions.

Mr Blair has urgrd EU member states to reform the CAP, saying that more money needed to be directed away from farming towards technology and research to boost Europe's economy.

He also said that the EU must act before 2013 - when the current CAP deal is due to end.

In the study, CAP and the Regions: The Territorial Impact of the Common Agricultural Policy, Professor Mark Shucksmith, of Newcastle University's School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Emeritus Professor Ken Thomson, and Dr Deb Roberts, of Aberdeen University's Business School, based their conclusions on various official sources on EU funding.

The authors have criticised CAP and its recent reforms, which they said did not go far enough to redress the balance between rich and poor.

They have made a number of recommendations for changes that they say could better achieve the EU's objectives.