France urged to lift UK beef ban

The export ban was first imposed in 1996

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has asked his French counterpart to respect an EU ruling which deemed a ban on British beef illegal.

The European Court of Justice said on Thursday that France was acting against the law by continuing to ban the meat because of fears that it still poses a risk of mad cow disease.

Blair urged Lionel Jospin to allow British farmers to resume exports of beef to France, officials said at a two-day European Union summit on Saturday.

France has continued to refuse to open its market to British beef despite a massive cull of cattle in the UK, saying it has to protect its consumers.

British farmers, who have had to face a string of setbacks including mad cow disease and foot-and-mouth, are looking to secure compensation for the lack of sales.

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The officials said Britain would assist a National Farmers Union court claim for compensation if needed after they lodged a formal request at the Luxembourg court.

"(Blair) made it clear...that we hope and expect the ruling will be implemented by the French government," a senior British official told reporters at the summit.

"They have indicated they are going to take a bit of time on this," he said. "We don't believe our farmers should have markets denied to them."

French Farm Minister Jean Glavany played down any immediate move on Friday saying France's priority would be protecting consumers as it decides how to respond to the ruling by the EU's top court.

The EU had banned British beef exports in 1996 after Britain said it believed there was a link between eating beef from cattle suffering from mad cow disease and catching a version of the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, which has so far killed about 100 people.

The Commission ended the ban in 1999 after Britain carried out a mass slaughter of infected and older cattle in an effort to control mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).