European Union countries are to push for higher compensation levels to cover oil tanker accidents, diplomats at a transport ministers' meeting said on Thursday. The ministers will finalize a negotiating stance when they next meet in June in order to be ready for International Oil Pollution Fund (IOPF) negotiations in October, a Swedish official told reporters. During the closed-door discussions there was relatively little support for the EU to set up its own compensation fund to supplement the IOPF, an idea that has been proposed by the European Commission and is supported by France, diplomats said. The Commission proposed an EU fund that would raise liability to a maximum of one billion euros ($901.7 million) from the IOPF's current 200 million-euro ($807.7 million) ceiling.