Clothing made from seal fur is to be banned throughout the European Union.

Although white pelts from baby seals were banned in 1986, fashion houses still use skins from older animals to make boots, coats, gloves and accessories.

Stavros Dimas, the EU's environment commissioner, told national ministers in France yesterday that an import embargo will be drawn up within weeks.

A harp seal lays on an ice floe in Canada - the annual harp seal hunt starts in March

Hunters insist that most seals die quickly after being shot. Their critics say many escape to die slowly on the ice or are clubbed unconscious.

More than 200,000 seals have been killed in Canada this year - 98 per cent of them pups between two weeks and three months old.

Smaller numbers are taken by hunters in Namibia, Norway and Russia.

Steven Blaakman, a campaigner with Eurogroup for Animals, said: 'Killing the animals in a humane way is very difficult as seal hunts take place at speed, in inaccessible areas and unstable environments.'