Brussels, 08/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Irish Presidency has called on the Commission to organise, on 16 January in Brussels, a meeting of top EU Member State civil aviation directors to tackle the controversy that has flared up over the new American air security measures aimed at imposing the presence of armed marshals on certain flights entering or leaving US territory. These measures were introduced after information concerning possible terrorist attacks against the United States - of the same scale as on 11 September - as the end of year and Christmas celebrations approached. The measures gave rise to various reactions among airline companies. British Airways states it is willing to comply with the new measures while Thomas Cook and South African Airways have announced they would prefer to cancel the flights. The Presidency has therefore decided to organise a first round the table discussion to seek to find a consensus and has called on the Commission to organise the meeting.