GENEVA (AFP) — Limited amounts of the world's most prized caviar, beluga, will be allowed back on cocktail tables this year after the UN's watchdog on endangered species on Monday lifted a ban on international trade.

States bordering the Caspian Sea have agreed to reduce their catch quotas by 29 percent compared to 2005 levels, allowing the export of 3.76 tons of Beluga this year, CITES said in a statement.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species had halted Beluga trade throughout last year because of fears of declining sturgeon fish stocks and over-exploitation by countries around its natural habitat in the Caspian Sea.

Beluga, the most valuable caviar, had been left out of caviar quotas announced by CITES earlier this year because it feared that information given by some of the countries on the species was not accurate, a spokesman said.

The agreed quota for Beluga is regarded as small. CITES said the fresh information given by the Caspian states showed that fish populations were expected to continue to decline.

"The Caspian States have stepped up their efforts to control the caviar trade and to release millions of young fish into the sea, but the decline in populations cannot be allowed to continue", said CITES Secretary General Willem Wijnstekers.

The countries are: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Russia and Turkmenistan.