(BERLIN) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday raised the pressure on Germany by dismissing its request for a higher pollution target for industry as "unfair".

Germany opposes the ceiling set by the Commission -- the executive arm of the European Union -- for carbon dioxide emissions of 453 million tonnes per year for the 2008-2012 period.

The biggest economy in Europe is proposing 465 million tonnes instead.

Barroso told the in-house magazine of the German parliament, Das Parlament, that Germany must fall into line.

"We cannot simply tailor our criteria to the wishes of individual member states. That would be inappropriate and unfair," Barroso said.

A German government spokesman maintained that the emissions target was the subject of negotiations.

Germany, under pressure from its powerful car production lobby, also rejects plans by the Commission to reduce carbon dioxide emissions targets for new cars to 120 grammes per kilometre.

Many of the luxury models made by BMW and Porsche emit at least twice that figure.

Germany's reluctance to meet the targets also drew criticism at the weekend from European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, who urged it to become a role model in the fight against climate change.

"If Germany drags its feet, the rest of Europe will do the same," Dimas told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

A UN conference report last week concluded that fossil fuel pollution would raise temperatures this century, worsen floods, droughts and hurricanes, melt polar ice and damage the climate system for a thousand years to come.

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