BRUSSELS, Belgium — Following all-night negotiations, European Union talks on protecting both dwindling fish stocks and fishing fleets entered a third day Friday, with fisheries ministers slowly moving toward consensus, officials said.

Early Friday, the ministers were able to reach a tentative deal on some long-term measures to protect such threatened stocks as cod and hake, but bartering over the 2004 catch quotas for species was still dragging on.

At heart of the talks was the necessity to stave off the commercial extinction of cod and other dinnertime favorites in many key E.U. waters while giving the embattled fishing communities some leeway to stay in business.

The European Commission on Thursday demanded concessions from major fisheries nations to protect stocks, especially after the E.U.'s executive office showed flexibility to let fishers catch more hake and some other species.

Spain, Denmark, France, and Britain want to protect their embattled fishing communities from new restrictions that would shrink catch quotas to historic lows. Germany and Sweden want to stick to scientific advice calling for a ban on cod in key fishing grounds and wide-ranging cuts in other catches.

"The long-term aim is to keep fishing and if there are no fish, we cannot do that," said E.U. Fisheries Commissioner Franz Fischler.

European fishing industry officials say the livelihoods of 200,000 people are at stake.

Scientists say stocks of cod have shrunk in the North Sea to about one-tenth of levels in 1970. As an example, they point to the waters off eastern Canada, where years of overfishing resulted in the disappearance of cod during the 1990s. The stocks still have not recovered.

Stocks of other species have also declined but fishers oppose all out bans for certain species since it would drive many fishers to bankruptcy.