HELSINKI (Reuters) - Pollution is killing the Baltic Sea and coastal states must mount an urgent salvage operation, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said Tuesday.

Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen holds a news conference after an emergency European Union leaders summit in Brussels March 1, 2009. REUTERS/Yves Herman

“The state of the sea is alarming,” Vanhanen told a meeting of the 47-nation Council of Europe parliamentary assembly in Helsinki.

“It is, in fact, suffering a slow death -- unless we do something, fast. There is a vicious circle that we need to break. We must join forces in a joint salvage operation of the Baltic.”

The Baltic has suffered from decades of pollution, largely from the former Soviet Union. Rivers still bring in chemical pollutants, including from agriculture, that cause blooms of algae that choke marine life.

Vanhanen said Finland would host a Baltic summit in February 2010 to try to clean up the almost land-locked sea and find ways to boost the regional economy.

“We need joint decisions to cut pollution caused by homes, industry and agriculture to the minimum,” he told delegates. The Baltic is bordered by Russia, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland.

Vanhanen said rising ship traffic was among problems.

“The increasing numbers of vessels in maritime transport, especially oil and chemical tankers but also passenger ships, require enhanced measures in maritime safety and preventing accidents,” he said.

Vanhanen’s gloom about the Baltic contrasts with some reports that have noted a slight improvement in the state of the sea. An existing Baltic Sea action plan aims to restore the sea to health by 2021.

“The Baltic remains in a bad shape, but there are some signs of improvement,” a report by the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission said in March.

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