THE deaths of four huge eagles at a wind-farm off the Norwegian coast will become a major talking point in British politics from today as the Government presses ahead with plans to introduce thousands more huge wind turbines to the UK.

The bodies of four white-tailed eagles, the biggest species in Europe, and the disappearance of many more near a windfarm on Smøla - on a direct migration route from Scandinavia to Britain - is being highlighted by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

One of the birds had been sliced in half by a turbine blade.

Although the RSPB gives its general support to the generation of "green" electricity, it is opposed to windfarms sited on traditional bird migration routes. Many other conservation bodies are opposed to turbines in areas of great natural beauty, like the proposed site at Whinash in Cumbria, which will dominate the landscape for miles around in both the national parks in the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.

The RSPB insists that the giant turbines are massive bird killers if sited in the wrong areas - and rare golden eagles breed in the Lake District only a few miles from Whinash. But that argument has been derided by wind farm supporters who say that the bird-kill effects are minimal. So today (January 30) the RSPB launched an outspoken counter attack using the Norwegian deaths as ammunition.