LUXEMBOURG —(AP)— The European Union Commission said Monday it will not be able to offer definitive scientific justification for a ban on imports of hormone-treated beef within the deadline set by the World Trade Organization.

But the EU's executive branch said that it still hoped to keep U.S. hormone-treated beef out by collecting enough preliminary scientific evidence by the May 13, 1999 target date.

The 15-nation EU has to meet that deadline to comply with a WTO ruling on its 1989 ban on imports of hormone-treated beef, EU officials said.

The EU launched new studies after the WTO — acting on complaints by the United States and Canada — ruled last year that the scientific basis of the EU ban on imports of hormone-treated beef was not sound enough.

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler told a regular meeting of EU farm ministers that some of the results of the new studies into the risks to human health posed by cattle growth hormones would not be available until 2000, the officials said.

He said most of the results would be ready in 1999, but not necessarily before next May 13, they added.

Nonetheless, Fischler said the Commission hopes to use preliminary evidence from the studies to justify the ban by the WTO compliance deadline, the officials said.

The remarks by Fischler came four and a half months after the WTO ordered the Commission to comply by next May 13 to its ruling that the EU hormone-treated beef import ban is illegal.

In response, the Commission said it would seek compliance by changing the scientific justification for the ban rather than by lifting it. To that end, it ordered in February eight independent studies into the risks posed by six cattle growth hormones.

The EU import ban came after a 1988 ban on the use in the EU of growth hormones in beef. The ban is based on contentions that the hormones can cause cancer.

The U.S. cattle industry has said the EU import ban is costing it $250 million a year in sales.