Bloomberg reported that Hungary, a month after selling carbon credits that triggered a halt on Europe's largest spot market for emissions, said it asked a London based metals broker for information about its trading.

Mr Jozsef Molnar chief of staff for the Hungarian Environment Ministry said that Total Global Steel Limited, started in 1999 as a trader on the London Metal Exchange, has yet to turn over the requested data.

The country, which didn’t accuse Total Global of impropriety, said an unidentified company broke an agreement not to resell the CO2 credits in Europe, resulting in a 3 day closure last month of the Paris based BlueNext SA exchange.

Mr Martin Lonergan CEO of Total Global said that it responded in an April 6th 2010 letter to the Hungarian ministry. He added that "While the company doesn't object in principle to providing Hungary with trade information, we have no idea why we've been identified as a trader of these credits."

Hungary is trying to clear its name after it sold 800,000 carbon credits that couldn't be used again in Europe's cap and trade market. The country said it played by the rules, posting restrictions on the credits and informing the European Commission of the transaction. Still, some of the credits ended up on the BlueNext exchange, raising questions about Europe's USD 108 billion carbon market.

(Sourced from www.bloomberg.net)