WASHINGTON (AP) – The government set conditions Thursday for trade in beluga caviar, saying imports to the United States must be accompanied by assurances from exporting countries that they can conserve populations of beluga sturgeon.

The new regulations also require other nations to meet U.S. standards for aquaculture, or fish farming, to prevent mixing of species by wild and farmed sturgeon, said Kenneth Stansell, the Fish and Wildlife Service’s assistant director for international affairs.

Stansell said the aim is to create “a long-term conservation program to encourage recovery of the species.”

The announcement by Fish and Wildlife makes final its decision not to impede U.S. trade in beluga sturgeon, its eggs or its meat. Last April, the agency agreed to list the beluga sturgeon as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, based on a petition in December 2000 from a U.S.-based environmental coalition, Caviar Emptor.

The agency, however, rejected the coalition’s request for a ban on trade in beluga sturgeon. Most of the world’s beluga caviar is imported by the United States, usually originating from the Caspian and Black seas.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, had sued Fish and Wildlife in 2002 to force the agency to respond to the petition.

The regulation taking effect Friday allows U.S. importers to continue bring in caviar and the meat of beluga sturgeon, but only from nations around the Caspian and Black seas that meet six new standards.

In six months exporting countries will have to show plans and timetables for helping the fish’s population recover and protecting their habitat and set limits on how many can be harvested.

Trade in beluga caviar is overseen by the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, based in Geneva, Switzerland.

After pressure from CITES in 2001, exports of Beluga caviar and other sturgeon products were suspended for nine months from most of the Caspian region. Trade resumed in March 2002 despite protests from environmentalists.

Since then, CITES has imposed annual quotas on caviar exports, but environmentalists say those actions have not slowed the decline in the sturgeon’s population.