SALT LAKE CITY - A commission formed after nine people died at a Utah coal mine recommended a federal-state partnership Wednesday to share mining plans and inspection reports and collaborate on ways to enhance safety.

The commission stopped short of suggesting Utah should create its own mine-safety agency, but the panel recommended a look at the feasibility of a state inspection program.

The recommendation was one of 45 in a report given to Gov. Jon Huntsman, who created the Utah Mine Safety Commission in response to two cave-ins at the Crandall Canyon mine in August. The bodies of six miners still have not been recovered.

"Is the state doing everything it should to promote mine safety? The answer is clearly no," said commission Chairman Scott Matheson, dean of the University of Utah law school.

The report focuses on providing additional mine training, certification, an accident response plan and research on Utah's deep mines.

When asked which recommendations would have prevented the Crandall Canyon mine from collapsing, Matheson said that wasn't the commission's task.

"If you take the recommendations as a whole and their aggregated and cumulative impact, in our judgment, it will make for a much safer situation for Utah coal mining in the short run and for that matter in the years beyond," he said.

Utah has not regulated mines in 20 years. West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and other large mining states have their own safety agencies.

Dennis O'Dell, the United Mine Workers of America's administrator for occupational health and safety, served on the commission and urged members to create a state inspection program, but was repeatedly rebuffed. Messages left with O'Dell on Wednesday were not immediately returned.

The mining industry has long opposed an independent state agency, saying it could cause headaches for mine operators and threaten the coal industry.

The president of the Utah Mining Association, David Litvin, was a member of Huntsman's commission and wrote a separate statement in the report.

"The statistics show there is little to no correlation between improvement in the safety records at mines in states that have state-administered safety programs as compared to those states, such as Utah, that do not," Litvin wrote, without providing statistics

The commission examined mine safety in 13 states and found only Colorado and Utah did not inspect mines, leaving the job to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Litvin said a Utah inspection program would "blur the lines of responsibility between MSHA and the state, resulting in delay, confusion, complication and frustration in the state's coal mining industry."

Still, Matheson called the proposed partnership between the state and MSHA one of the most significant recommendations.

"I think we're breaking new ground with this concept," he said.

Matheson said how involved Utah and MSHA become with each other will have to be negotiated.

A spokesman for MSHA issued a statement Wednesday that gave little insight as to what the agency has in mind for the partnership.

"We remain committed to assisting the State of Utah and look forward to working as a partner to improve safety and health protections for Utah's miners," MSHA spokesman Matthew Faraci said in the statement.

Matheson said the partnership could last a year or more so the state can determine how it might be able to provide another set of eyes on mines. MSHA chief Richard Stickler has said he would welcome help from Utah.

Huntsman said he would begin reading the recommendations immediately and was excited about the partnership proposal.

Some recommendations could be adopted by executive order while others would require approval by lawmakers. The Legislature's 45-day session began Monday.