Brit Cowmen Urge End
To Mad Cow Beef Ban

CARDIFF, Wales —(AP)— Thousands of farmers and rural workers staged a demonstration Sunday to urge Prime Minister Tony Blair and his European Union colleagues to lift the ban on British beef exports immediately.

Anticipating months of haggling, National Farmers Union head Ben Gill said the two-day EU summit kicking off early this week gave Blair, as the meeting's chairman, a chance to speed things up.

"We are not prepared to tolerate a further six-month delay in getting this ban lifted just because of political considerations," Gill said.

The beef export ban was imposed in March 1996 over fears of "mad cow" disease. Last week, declaring British beef safe again, the European Commission recommended the ban be lifted under strict conditions.

The initial reaction from veterinary experts from the 15 EU nations has been that they need time to consider the proposal. If they cannot agree, the EU agriculture ministers get involved, injecting politics into the decision.

Germany, in particular, is wary about resuming British beef sales, fearing a consumer backlash, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl may not be in the mood for concessions in the runup to September elections.

Blair said Sunday that the British government had "started to make progress."

"I totally understand and sympathize with the plight of the farmers, which is why we have been working so hard to get the beef ban lifted," he said.

Even if the political go-ahead for a resumption of British beef sales comes soon, it will take months of EU health and safety checks before British beef is exported again, officials have said.