Lithuania has asked the European Court of Justice to let it join a Polish action on farm subsidies against the European Union, a Lithuanian official said on Tuesday.

"We want to join Poland, as we think that our interests (negotiated in the EU accession treaty) were violated," Laimonas Ciakas, director of European Affairs at the Lithuanian agriculture minstry told AFP.

"We agreed during the EU accession talks that direct subsidies to our farmers would total 25 percent of those paid to farmers in older EU members and that they would reach 100 percent by 2013," Ciakas said.

But according to the Lithuanian official, the EU reformed its Common Agriculture Policy in mid 2003 by introducing new levels for direct payments.

"It was decided that we shall get 25 percent of those payments, but we think it is not fair, as these are new payments and we did not negotiate them," Ciakas said.

He added that Lithuania would get around 200 million euros (258.3 million dollars) by 2013 if the court ruled in its favour.

The agricultural sector employs around 18 percent of the population in Lithuania, which joined the EU on May 1.