020328 France Will Not End UK Beef Ban Soon

Paris - France will not end its unilateral ban on British beef in the next three months because it still does not have assurances the meat is safe from mad cow disease, the country's new farm minister said.

Francois Patriat, who took over as agriculture minister from Jean Glavany in February, said the country's left-wing government did not plan to address the ban between now and legislative elections scheduled in June.

"We will not drop the ban in the coming three months," Patriat told journalists at a lunch briefing, suggesting that the trade spat between Britain, France and the European Union over beef will not be settled anytime soon.

The European Commission ended its 3-1/2 year ban on British beef exports in the summer of 1999, but France refused to comply with the measure and was subsequently taken to court.

Europe's highest court ruled in December that France was acting illegally by continuing to ban the meat because of fears that it still posed a risk of mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Lawyers representing Britain's National Farmers' Union, which has taken the French government to court for compensation over the continuing ban, were due to present their case on March 19 at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Britain's farm ministry has said it supports the case lodged by the union, whose members' incomes have plunged after a series of disasters from BSE to last year's foot-and-mouth disease epidemic.

An aide to Patriat explained that even though the EU's highest court has ruled against it, France would not budge because it still lacked full data on BSE numbers in Britain's national cattle herd.

France has repeatedly criticised Britain for not providing adequate information from testing of cattle aged over 30 months regarding the deadly, brain-wasting illness, which scientists believe can be passed to humans via infected meat and meat products.

"We still have not had any guarantee on (British) cattle aged more than 30 months," the aide to Patriat later explained.

A recent EU report concluded that a lack of testing meant the incidence of the disease in Britain had to be "seen with a considerable degree of uncertainty."

More than 100 people in Britain, France and Ireland have died or are believed to be dying from the human form of BSE.

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