The white wines of Hungary's northeastern Tokaj region should be unmistakable, after all French King Louis XIV is said to have called them "the wine of kings and the king of wines."

But local wine producers railed over the weekend against what they call a host of "fakes" spanning from Italy's "Tocai Friulano" to Japan's "Tokachi," which they argue abuse the renown of the Hungarian brand by selling different wines under similar names.

"Tokaj is as Hungarian as Ferenc Puskas," Balazs Tarjan, president of the Hungarian Wine Academy, told AFP at the annual Tokaj wine festival, comparing the wine with the legendary footballer who led Hungary to the 1954 World Cup finals.

"The play with the Tokaj name is misleading customers and therefore we can call the imitators fake," said Istvan Muller of the Hungarian Agriculture Ministry, who is charged with clearing up Tokaj's name in the EU.

According to Hungary's accession treaty with the EU, which the nation joined on May 1, Hungary as of March 31, 2007 will have exclusive rights to the name Tokaj within the bloc.

Some countries, however, are unwilling to bow down before the "king of wines," of which the most famous type is the natural sweet dessert wine "Tokaji aszu."

Italy, which produces the "Tocai Friulano," has filed an appeal with the European Court of Justice arguing that granting the Tokaj brand to Hungarians was "discrimination," an official at the Italian Agriculture Ministry said.

"Italy is looking for an unlimited delay" in the the exclusivity granted to Hungary as of 2007," the source said.

Even more contentious is the case of Slovakia, some of whose wine-producing area forms part of the Tokaj region located some 250 kilometers northeast of Budapest along the Slovakian border.

Hungary is willing to let Slovakia produce Tokaj wine on only three bordering settlements and on a maximum of 330 hectares, Zoltan Harcz of the Agriculture Ministry in Budapest told AFP.

"And this only if Slovakia adopts the Hungarian laws on wimemaking, if there are joint quality control checks and the EU guarantees that Slovakia obliges to our conditions," Harcz said.

Slovakia says its Tokaj wine is as good as the Hungarian version and has no plans to limit its production.

"The European Commission recognized the region of Tokaj but not the political border between Slovakia and Hungary, which means we can produce and export the Slovakian Tokaj brand," said Juraj Tomaga, the Slovak foreign ministry spokesman.

France is said to have accepted the Hungarian rights over Tokaj varieties -.

However further feuds loom.

Tokaj producers at a conference titled "Tokaj fakes in the world" said this weekend that Japan has a "Tokachi" brand while agriculture ministry officials said they had heard of versions in Australia and the US state of New York as well.

"If there are fake Adidas or Nike brands authorities have the right to destroy them," Muller of the agriculture ministry said. "But with the wines it's much more difficult, how do we make them disappear?"

Tokaj producers, at least, hope it's not by drinking them.