Brussels  - Greece and Cyprus boast the cleanest beaches in the European Union, while some of the purest lakes and rivers can be found in Finland, Sweden and Germany, according to a report published Thursday by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

The EEA's Quality of bathing water 2008 report collated data from more than 21,000 bathing sites and found that the overwhelming majority of them are clean, with their quality raising steadily since 1990.

During the bathing season, some 96 per cent of coastal bathing areas and 92 per cent of bathing sites in rivers and lakes were found to be in compliance with the EU's minimum standards, officials said.

Compliance with such mandatory values used to be 80 per cent and 52 per cent respectively in 1990.

"I am pleased to see that the overall quality of water in bathing areas is improving throughout the Union," EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas told reporters in Brussels.

Each year, the EU tests its waters for possible bacteriological contamination deriving from industrial waste or agriculture.

Water colour, acidity, and the presence of residues from detergents are also tested.

More than one third of the EU's 14.500 beaches are found in Italy, of which 302 have been closed to bathers because of pollution.

The highest number of lakes and rivers are in Germany and France.

The report found that many areas of the Baltic Sea are suffering from an overgrowth of algae, while a relatively high number of dirty waters are found around Denmark, Poland and Britain. Testing is still lagging behind in new EU member states Romania and Bulgaria.

Interactive maps of the EU's bathing waters can be found at:

www. eea. europa. eu/themes/water/status-and-monitoring/state-of- bathing-water-1/state-of-bathing-water. (dpa)