The targets -- part of a wider package to slash greenhouse gas emissions by one-fifth in 12 years -- will force countries to boost their use of such energy forms as biomass and wind, wave, solar and hydro power by six to 14 percent.

"This will require major investment and commitment," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned after unveiling the new measures, which he described as "sound and equitable", at European Union headquarters.

Brussels hopes the targets -- to be achieved by 2020 -- will foster investment in new energy technologies, bringing with it jobs and decreasing dependence on other forms, like fossil fuels, and suppliers such as Russia.

"It is crucial that this legislation is not undermined by infighting between member states on their national renewables targets," Claude Turmes, a Green member of the European Parliament, said in a statement.

"Increasing renewables is not some punitive means of achieving climate goals. It is a key means of reducing our dependence on foreign energy and creating jobs in Europe."

After heavy lobbying from EU nations and environmental groups, the commission based its calculations on the amount of renewable energy effort being made in 2005, the most recent year with reliable data.

The effort was also weighted according to gross domestic product, essentially the individual wealth of the EU nations, ranging from poorer central Europeans to richer northern and Scandinavian countries.

Sweden will be asked to produce 49 percent of energy from clean means, while Finland, Austria, Portugal and Denmark will be asked to draw on them for about a third of their needs.

"That's a mighty goal," Olle Bjoerk, deputy director of the Swedish environment ministry, told AFP in the days before the targets were finalised.

"That will be very hard for us to achieve since we are already at 40 percent ... And we already have twice the level the EU is supposed to have in 2020," he said.

But Barroso argued: "Our proposals take into account the fact that member states are not on an equal footing and have different situations. Some are better able to finance investments than others."

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs estimated that around 20 of the 27 EU nations were prepared to accept the target they had been set.

Under the commission's plans -- still to be formally debated and endorsed by EU member states and the European Parliament -- renewable energies have been divided into three sectors: electricity, heating and cooling, and transport.

EU countries will be left the flexibility to decide how their targets will be achieved, except that they will have to achieve a mandatory 10 percent share in transport primarily from biofuels.

Transport is the sector where the most rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions is being recorded.

Favouring biofuels offers the additional advantage of reducing the EU's dependence on oil and promoting the use of this type of fuel, which is more expensive to produce and might be ignored otherwise.

The European Commission's plan also includes a system to guarantee that this policy is sustainable, amid concerns that biofuels are causing rain forests to be cut down and sending up food prices.

The nations are called on to adopt an action plan to achieve their targets and submit them to EU's executive by March 31, 2010, at the latest, a decade before time is up.

Europe's wind industry group, EWEA, welcomed the package as "a powerful response to the imminent energy and climate crisis."

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