BRUSSELS - FOUR Indonesian airlines, including Garuda, the country's flag carrier, were removed on Tuesday from an EU list of airlines banned from flying to Europe because of safety concerns.

The European Union said it acted because of their 'significant improvements and accomplishments' in air safety.

Garuda plans to resume flights to Europe in the near future. The other three - Mandala, Premiair and Airfast - are either charter companies serving mining operations or domestic carriers with limited overseas services.

The EU had placed all two dozen of Indonesia's airlines on its international blacklist of banned carriers in 2007, after 102 people died in an Adam Air crash in the Java Sea off Indonesia, and 23 passengers were killed in a Garuda landing accident in Indonesia.

'We cannot afford any compromise in air safety,' EU Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani said, adding that unsafe airlines should be banned from flying anywhere outside their home country.

'Citizens have the right to fly safely anywhere in the world,' he said. 'It is high time that the international community rethinks safety policy,' Mr Tajani said. 'Those airlines which are unsafe should not be allowed to fly anywhere.' In Jakarta, Transportation Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said his government would seek a comprehensive aviation agreement between Indonesia and the EU's 27 member states.

The updated EU blacklist now contains 194 carriers deemed not to meet international safety standards. It includes carriers from Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The highest-profile names remaining on the list are North Korea's Air Koryo and Afghanistan's Ariana Airlines.

The EU statement said one of the blacklisted companies, Angola's flag carrier TAAG Angola, would be allowed to resume restricted service to Portugal while its air safety deficiencies are remedied.

The EU started publishing its controversial airline blacklist in 2005.

Critics note that dozens of the carriers included in the document, including Africa's notorious fly-by-night outfits, have been shut down. Others are mainly operators serving mining or offshore drilling sites, not typical civilian travellers. -- AP