Brussels, 26/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Transport Council has encouraged the Commission to extend by two months the system allowing Member States to publicly back the "war" and "terrorism" insurance coverage of their air lines, a system set up after the 11 September attacks. Commissioner de Palacio said that she was planning to extend the scheme until 31 May 2002. The United Kingdom and Luxembourg called for the scheme to be extended until 19 May, to match the measures put in place by the United States. Most ministers stressed that this must be the last time the scheme is extended, in order to encourage airlines and insurers to return to normal market operations. The Commissioner said she would be publishing a proposal before the summer aiming to set up a fund to share the burden of insurance premiums (see EUROPE of 16 March, p.15, and 6 March, p.9). The Association of European Airlines (AEA) is in the process of preparing the outlines of how the Fund would operate.