The European Union has agreed a deal with Mozambique allowing EU ships to catch tuna and shrimp off the African country's coast for the next three years.

The EU has now bought fishing rights from 15 African countries because of dwindling fish stocks in its own waters.

Under the agreement the EU will pay Mozambique around $4m.

In return, 10 European vessels will be allowed to catch up to 1,000 tonnes of shrimp a year for three years.

Forty-nine European vessels will be allowed to fish for tuna, with no limit on the catch.

Compensation

The EU has rejected claims the deals will deplete fish stocks vital to poor African coastal communities, insisting that the cash will help promote sustainable fishing in the region.

But Ellen Boors of Greenpeace said the EU could not be sure how the money would be spent.

"The European Union does not have a say about how the money ends up being used in Mozambique, as is the case also with other countries with whom the EU has an agreement," she said.

Ms Boors told the BBC's World Business Report that compensation for the depletion of fish stocks did not take the wider social and environmental impact into account.