PARIS, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Twenty-two of the 27 European Union agriculture ministers unanimously appealed for stronger farms policy on Thursday after a meeting planned to settle the frame of a new EU common policy failed the target in the end.

    A stronger Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) should take account of the feeding diversity, protection of farmer incomes and the environment, the ministers agreed at the meeting yet without a concrete conclusion.

    "It's not easy to reach an accord within 22 states that defend their different options," Bruno Le Maire, the French Agriculture Minister, said.

    The current CAP which defines EU subsidies and programs for farms will expire in 2013.

    As for the successor, France demands more aids for farms, especially diary farmers, and has gained most EU members' support. German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner also asked for continuous subsidies for farmers even after 2013.

    However, five peers absent from the Thursday meeting, including Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, called to reduce farms subsidies and edge European farmers' competitiveness.

    Notwithstanding the new policy has "strategic" importance, it can't be "sold cheaply" and "the common policy requires the cooperation of all 27 EU countries," the French host minister underlined.

    The current CAP program averagely costs over 40 percent of the EU budget every year, taking the largest share. Pressed by climate change and energy security, the EU reportedly shifted in October its investment focus to the fight against global warming from farms protection.

    France, the largest agriculture country in Europe, was also the biggest beneficiary of the common farms policy.