Annual catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna will rise slightly from next year, environmental groups say at a meeting of countries that hunt the much-prized but threatened species.

In 2013 and 2014, catches will rise to 13,500 tonnes annually for fish taken in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic, compared with 12,900 tonnes today.

The new quotas were set by the 48-member International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) at the end of a week-long meeting in Morocco's port of Agadir.

The new catch limits were set in a context of conflicting news about a species listed by conservationists as endangered.

In 2006, ICCAT agreed to a 32,000-tonne annual catch maximum but two years later set progressively tougher limits as evidence mounted of a threat to stocks.

But last month, ICCAT scientists said they had found the first evidence of a bluefin revival, a finding that spurred hopes in some countries of an easing on catch constraints.