* Two French unions call for farmers to stop delivering milk
* Backed by EU milk union, but no Europe strike call
* Farmers want more EU action to lift depressed milk prices
* Main French union against strike, wants French EU majority
(Adds quotes, detail)
By Gus Trompiz
PARIS, Sept 10 (Reuters) - French dairy unions urged producers on Thursday to throw their milk away in a strike they hope will spread across Europe and force the authorities to take more action to counter a slump in the dairy sector.
French dairy unions the OPL and APLI called on producers to drain their milk and not deliver to dairies, after a meeting in Paris with members of the European Milk Board (EMB), a grouping of dairy farmers in the European Union.
"I call on producers to open the floodgates after this evening's milking," said Pascal Massol, APLI's president.
The protesting farmers are hoping the threat of shortages in shops in the coming days will prompt a swift response from the French and EU authorities.
The EMB is calling for prices paid to farmers to be raised to 40 euro cents a litre, compared with lows of around 20 cents this year, to bring prices above production costs, and for the EU to freeze planned increases in milk quotas.
After a price spike in 2007, global dairy markets have deteriorated sharply over the past year, fuelling protests by farmers in France and several other European countries.
The potential impact of the milk strike is unclear given that France's main farm union, the FNSEA, opposes it.
"I hope we will be supported by more than half of the producers in France...and I hope this will create a snowball effect in other European countries," Daniel Condat, president of the OPL, told Reuters on the sidelines of the open-air gathering near the Eiffel Tower.
The EMB's German president, Romuald Schaber, and representatives from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg said they would personally join in the milk strike.
But they stopped short of calling for strikes outside France, with Schaber saying anti-cartel rules in Germany prevented a similar call there.
FNSEA President Jean-Michel Lemetayer played down the action, calling instead for France to pursue efforts to secure an EU majority in favour of a regulated market.
"We need to get ready for the end of the quota system by trying to convince the Commission to keep necessary mechanisms to regulate the market," he told France's BFM radio.
QUOTA REFORM
After joining forces with Germany this summer to call for additional regulatory support for dairy farmers, France's farm minister has been seeking the backing of other EU countries.
But the latest council of European farm ministers on Monday did not produce any new measures, prompting dairy farmers to harden their tone.
The European Commission has opposed calls for freezes to quota increases in the run-up to their planned abolition in 2015 and says it has already taken steps to shore up the dairy sector through moves such as export subsidies.
European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fishcer Boel said last week dairy prices in Europe were slowly starting to recover, with income benefits likely to filter down to farmers soon.
For factboxes on EU dairy product sector and milk production quota system click on and (Editing by Sue Thomas)