Tallinn - The European Union will soon stage a simulated cyber-attack to test its online defences, Estonian Economy Minister Juhan Parts told an EU ministerial conference in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, on Tuesday.

Speaking on the second day of a two-day gathering dedicated to Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP), Parts said the meeting would mark "a beginning of much needed common action at EU level in the area of CIIP policy.

"Member states' representatives supported the idea of organizing a common cyber-security exercise in the near future," Parts said, adding that it would likely take place by 2010 at the latest.

"We need one European exercise so we can focus on the operation of the different authorities in different member countries," he told the German Press Agency dpa.

The pan-European cyber-wargame might share some elements with the United States' "Cyber Storm" event, but would not be a carbon copy, Parts said.

"It's not enough to just make strategies and common definitions. We have to act as quickly as possible in order to improve our capabilities," he said.

Exactly two years ago, Estonia was the victim of a massive cyber-assault from servers in Russia amid controversy over the moving of a Soviet-era war memorial.

Since then Georgia and Lithuania have both fallen victim to large-scale cyber-attacks.

"Our reliance on the internet has also demonstrated its dark side. Those attacks made us realise critical information infrastructure must be protected," Parts said.