BEEF CRISIS: EU states set to drive final nail into the coffin

The final nail in the coffin for Britain's shattered beef export trade is expected today, when European Union member-states vote for an immediate boycott effective throughout the 15 nations. Veterinary officers representing the governments will meet in Brussels to decide on measures to allay public fears over BSE, but with 10 member-states already banning British beef, a blanket freeze looks inevitable.

The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, is expected to make a statement in Brussels tonight, when the Government hopes he will give answers on compensation for beef and dairy farmers potentially facing ruin.

A decision to ban British exports will plunge already strained relations between Britain and its EU partners into fresh crisis ahead of this week's Turin EU summit marking the start of negotiations on how to prepare the Union for closer integration. The Government will today be urging its partners to heed the advice of independent European experts who on Friday held back from advising a trade ban. But it will be powerless to exercise a veto in the Standing Veterinary Committee, composed of representatives from each state, which takes its decisions by qualified majority vote. Friday's meeting gave some comfort to Britain by stating there was still no proof BSE is transmissible to humans. The committee called for the slaughter of all British cattle exposed to the risk of "mad cow disease" to minimise the chances of suspect meat entering the food chain but it did not recommend a ban on trade.

Germany, however, which has been leading calls for an EU-imposed ban, attacked the scientists for failing to take account of the real health risks. Horst Seehoffer, Minister for Health, said: "Measures which are only academic and fail to take account of the obvious lack of prevention or supervision in Britain are simply inadequate."