EU FARM ministers meet this afternoon in Luxembourg to debate new British proposals to eradicate BSE and restore confidence to the markets.
Meanwhile the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Mr Michael Dowling, has had a series of meetings in Cairo to discuss the Egyptian ban on European beef products. While the authorities allowed the unloading of nearly 5,000 Irish cattle from boats in Alexandria, future exports are still in doubt.
Today's Luxembourg meeting follows talks during the weekend between the British Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, and the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler. But even if Mr Hogg wins general backing for his as yet unspecified measures for dealing with the crisis, the EU ministers are thought unlikely to lift the export ban immediately.
Things need time to calm down, one source said, confirming the view expressed by the new Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, in Turin on Friday that a lifting of the ban could take more than six weeks.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, will call for changes in the intervention system and for the funding of a major beef promotional campaign in Europe.
Ireland, a spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said, has some 50,000 cattle ready for market. Failure to reopen fully the Middle East markets could mean a heavy demand for intervention, although he said there were reports of demand for Irish beef in Britain at the weekend.
The secretary of the Department, Mr Dowling, was still in Cairo yesterday negotiating for a complete lifting by Egypt of the ban on Irish beef. While three consignments have been cleared, a further 1,400 tonnes is en route.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, was urged by the IFA president to lead a diplomatic mission to Tehran to win back the Iranian beef market. Mr John Donnelly said the commitment given by Mr Spring at the Turin summit to make the trip, if necessary, must now be fulfilled.
A spokesman for Mr Spring said last night he was monitoring the situation and Government officials would be in contact with the Iranian authorities this week.
Meanwhile, changes in the intervention regime could be made at the emergency meeting of the EU's beef management committee called for tomorrow.
On Friday the committee agreed to take some 140 tonnes of British beef into intervention. A spokesman for the Commission said this was under the non mandatory procedure and was, so far, only request received. It is the first beef to go into intervention in two years.
Proposals currently being studied by the British to seek a regionalisation of the ban so that Northern Ireland and Scotland could be exempted, are unlikely to win the backing of ministers, sources said.
They said the perceived impossibility of policing cattle movements within the UK made it unworkable, particularly in the context of measures that will enable the full ban to be lifted within weeks.
On Friday night the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, told a Scottish journalist in Turin that "certainly this is something we are looking at".
Sources in London suggest that Britain will today propose a continuing cull of cows as they reach six years, keeping the animals out of the food chain, as well as the systematic slaughter of herds affected by BSE.
An Irish official said yesterday that such measures would go a long way to providing the reassurances needed, but warned that expectations in some quarters in Britain that the ban would be lifted quickly were likely to be disappointed.
Commission sources insisted once again yesterday that financial support from Brussels for any slaughter policy would depend on it being the right policy, agreed with the member states. But the Commission's vice president, Sir Leon Brittan. told the BBC that the EU stood ready to bear a "serious" proportion of the cost.
He said that Brussels could foot the bill for anything between 50 per cent and the full cost of any large scale culling, although Brussels sources suggest a figure closer to the former is more likely.
Commissioner Fischler warned, however, that there would be no question of a "blank cheque" for Britain.
On Saturday the Consumer Protection Commissioner, Ms Emma Bonino, announced that the European cosmetic industry has pledged to urge its members to withdraw from sale any cosmetics containing ingredients derived from bovine tissue.