SPAIN HAS THE MOST BLUE FLAGS

Despite the fact that the European Commission has suspended the water quality of 14 beaches in Spain - five of them on the Costa del Sol - the country continues to have the most blue flags in the world, a total of 499 this year, or one in seven beaches. A total of 77 marinas have also been awarded the flag. Galicia, which has fully recovered from the Prestige oil tanker disaster of Novemeber 2002, is now the region with the most blue flags for beach quality - 127 - followed by Cataluña with 108, Valencia with 107 and Andalucia with 72. Of the islands the Balearics have 80 and the Canaries 30.