* EU Parliament agrees to scale back plans to regulateinternational flight emissions
* States feared expansion would anger China, U.S
* EU to revisit plans if no global deal ready in 2016 (Adds details of legal threat by airlines, reaction)
By Ben Garside and Susanna Twidale
LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - The European Parliament onThursday voted to exempt international flights from paying fortheir carbon emissions following intense pressure from nationalgovernments not to extend current rules beyond domestic airtravel.
On Thursday the European Parliament voted by 458 votes to120 to back a proposal which would limit the current regulationto domestic flights until at least 2016, a spokesman for theParliament said in a statement.
The vote marks the end of three years of wrangling, duringwhich China and the United States had threatened retaliation ifthe EU forged ahead with plans to regulate flights originatingin their countries in a bid to curb the aviation sector's risingoutput of heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change.
The European Commission had proposed extending theregulation to also cover the portion of international flightsover EU territory, insisting Europe was within its rights toregulate within its own airspace.
But EU member states came out against the plan, fearing itcould spark a trade war with major trading partners and hamperprogress toward a globally-agreed deal to curb fast-risingaviation emissions.
"We invite the European Commission to rethink the usefulnessof unilateral strategy that hits Europe without environmentalgain," said centre-right MEP Eija-Riitta Korhola on Twitter.
"RECKLESS" MOVE
Other lawmakers criticised the move, which will reduce byaround three-quarters the amount of aviation emissions regulatedvia the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), and accused the EU ofcaving under international pressure.
"It is reckless to dismantle this effective climate policyinstrument in exchange for a vague promise on a global scheme inthe distant future without guarantees of environmental integrityor ambition," green party MEP Satu Hassi said in a statement.
Aviation accounts for around 5 percent of man-made emissionsblamed for causing climate change.
In 2012 the European Union started charging all airlines foremissions for the full duration of their flights into and out ofthe bloc via its ETS but confined application to domestic EUflights, initially for one year, to give the United Nations timeto craft a global alternative.
Last September, nearly 190 nations at U.N. aviation bodyICAO agreed to design a worldwide scheme to limit aviationemissions by 2016 to take effect in 2020, but rejected lettingEurope apply its own plans in the meantime.
CONCESSION WON
Peter Liese, the MEP who steered the legislation through theParliament, said the assembly had won important concessionsincluding a requirement for the Commission to immediately comeup with a new proposal following the ICAO meeting in 2016, fouryears earlier than member states had wanted.
"If no meaningful progress is made in ICAO in 2016, thepressure on decision-makers to stand by their promise to revertback to a full aviation ETS will be overwhelming," said BillHemmings, an environmental campaigner for Brussels-based NGOTransport and Environment.
Thursday's vote outcome means operators of EU flights willstill have to pay but delays a deadline to cover 2013 emissionsby one year to April 2015.
Low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet, which fly almost exclusively within Europe, argue thatthe measure puts them at a competitive disadvantage versusrivals with more long-distance flights such as Lufthansa and Alitalia.
The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) saidunless the EU reverses its decision it "will have no option butto reactivate its currently stayed legal challenge against suchdiscrimination." (Editing by Jason Neely and Keiron Henderson)
easyJet (EZJ)