The 25-state bloc has the most stringent environmental laws in the world and ahead of a Group of Eight summit in Scotland Wednesday and Thursday, the four EU states that are members of the rich-nations' club - France, Britain, Germany and Italy - have piled pressure on U.S. President George W. Bush to sign up to binding targets to reduce greenhouse gases.

But on the eve of the Gleneagles summit north of Edinburgh, the EU's greener-than-thou reputation has been called into question by a blazing row inside the European Commission about its future environment policies.

European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas had been due to present two major laws on air quality and marine protection at a meeting of the EU executive on July 20.

But when Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso caught sight of the cost of implementing the planned measures, the former Portuguese premier ordered the directives to be put on ice while the executive arm debated the future direction of the club's environment policy.

"The president has said that the commission had not discussed the environment sufficiently to date," commission spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail told journalists.

"There has to be a balance between the benefits for the environment and the overall costs."

The fate of five other strategies - on waste, soil, pesticides, natural resources and urban environmental management - also hangs in the balance until the commission decides what approach to take toward the environment, officials confirmed.

In the past three decades, the EU has adopted more than 300 environmental laws ranging from banning lead in gasoline to requiring manufacturers to recycle used electronic goods.

The bloc already has the strictest air quality laws in the world, but the commission believes too many people are still dying unnecessarily because of deadly particulates and urban smog.

The executive body claims 350,000 Europeans die prematurely from air pollution each year, with life expectancy reduced by an average of 9 months across the club and by 19 months in black-spots like Belgium.

The problem is that tightening EU air quality laws even further comes with a hefty price tag attached. Even the commission estimates that its present air pollution proposal, which would slash emissions from power plants, ships, cars and trucks, would cost over $14 billion a year until 2020.

Industry is up in arms about the cost of implementing the planned directive - and another controversial chemicals law estimated to cost European firms over $2.5 billion a year.

In a letter to Barroso last month, the business lobby group UNICE expressed its "deep concerns" about the "disproportionate" costs of the 'Clean Air For Europe' directive.

In Barroso, European industry has found a friendly ear. Since becoming commission president in January, the center-right politician has made no secret of the fact he believes environmental protection is a luxury that can be ill-afforded during an economic downturn.

"During last week's debate inside the commission, Barroso said that when he was Portuguese prime minister, he discovered workers in motorway toll booths were exposed to dangerous pollution levels," said one disgruntled Brussels official.

"His solution was not to reduce emissions of pollutants but to replace the workers with automatic machines. That is his approach to environmental policy."

According to commission sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Barroso believes the rejection of the EU constitution by French and Dutch voters shows an appetite for less legislation from Brussels.

After meeting British Premier Tony Blair Friday, the commission chief confessed that some EU laws were "absurd" and would be torched in a bonfire of unnecessary diktats starting in the fall.

Britain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is also lobbying furiously to cut red-tape from Europe. On Monday, the deregulation minister John Hutton said the Union must stop passing new laws unless the benefits "clearly" outweigh the costs.

"Too often in the past, Brussels has given the impression of regulating first and asking about the impact later."

However, green lobby groups point to opinion polls showing over 80 percent of Europeans in favor of stricter environmental laws. They also say the latest row inside the commission could not have come at a worse time for the EU on the eve of the G8 meeting.

"At the time when world leaders meeting at the G8 summit are showing unprecedented attention to environmental issues, it is perverse that the European Commission is backtracking on its environmental commitments," said Tony Long, director of the WWF European Policy Office in Brussels.

"This is a time for global EU leadership on environmental issues and an excellent opportunity to reconnect the EU with European public opinion, an opportunity that the Commission is throwing away with its decision to postpone action."

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