(DOHA) - External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said on Wednesday the question of human rights was one of the points in a free trade agreement being negotiated with Gulf Arab states.

"I will not go into details because we want to finalise" the accord between the European Union and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), she told reporters in Qatar.

"But one of the issues is now to reformulate the principal of human rights," she said without elaborating.

The GCC -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- has been in talks with the now 27-member EU about a free trade agreement since 1988.

First formed in 1981, the oil-rich GCC established a common market in the new year with a combined economy of 715 billion dollars.

Despite its small size, Qatar is one of the world's largest suppliers of liquefied natural gas, and Europe is a major LNG consumer.

"Qatar and the EU are natural partners on energy," Ferrero-Waldner said. "We want to diversify our suppliers, we want to diversify our transit routes, but we also want to diversfy the resources.

"Hydrocarbons are very important, but we want to go to renewable energy, and we see the same very clear interest in the Gulf countries, and specially Qatar."

Qatar has the world's third-largest gas reserves, after Russia and Iran.

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