Ten northern European nations on Friday agreed to link up their electricity systems to boost the development of offshore wind farms - in a move which advocates say should provide more energy than the whole Middle East.

The European Union is keen to strengthen wind power to reduce its energy imports and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the development of offshore wind farms has long been hampered by the difficulty of bringing electricity from deep-sea stations to the mainland.

'The capacity in matters of offshore wind energy in the North Sea region is enormous. It even surpasses the energy equivalent of petrol reserves in the Middle East,' read a statement from the Belgian government, which brokered the deal as holder of the EU presidency.

Under the deal, EU members Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, and non-member Norway, agreed to coordinate investments and planning for deep-sea wind farms to make sure that they can both be built and be linked to existing power grids.

The 10 will 'work in close collaboration in order to find solutions to the technical and administrative challenges that are encountered in connection with the planning of this energy transport network and its operation,' the Belgian statement said.

On Friday, they signed a memorandum defining 'a work schedule that precisely describes the actions to be undertaken,' including six-monthly reports to energy ministers.

The EU has labelled proposals to create and link offshore wind farms in the North Sea, English Channel, Irish Sea and Celtic Sea (the body of water from Southern Ireland to Brittany) as one of the top priorities for the next decade.

According to EU figures, the creation of deep-sea wind farms there could generate 16 per cent of EU electricity needs and create up to 150,000 new jobs by 2030.

However, private companies argue that it will only make business sense to fund such projects once governments create a system which will make it possible for them to sell their power on land.