Madrid - Spain will become the first major buyer of surplus carbon dioxide emission rights from eastern Europe in an attempt to comply with the Kyoto Protocol, the daily El Pais reported Friday.

Spain has sealed with Hungary the purchase of a quota of 6 million tons of CO2, and is in talks about similar deals with Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the daily quoted government sources as saying.

The Kyoto Protocol allows eastern European countries to sell surplus emission rights after closing contaminating factories in the early 1990s.

Spanish greenhouse gas emissions increased by 50 per cent between 1990 and 2007, though the Kyoto Protocol would only have allowed them to go up by 15 per cent.

The government calculates that Spain needs to buy emission rights to at least 159 million tons of CO2 to make up for pollution from transport and households, according to El Pais.

The government expects to spend 1.2 billion euros (1.7 billion dollars) on complying with the Kyoto Protocol, including the cost of green energy projects mainly in Latin America.

Spanish companies will also need to acquire emission rights if they exceed the limits set by the Kyoto Protocol.

The right of eastern European countries to sell emission quotas has been criticized by environmentalists, who say it allows countries not to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. (dpa)