A 10-year European Union ban on British beef due to fears over BSE looks set to be removed next week, an EU official said this evening.
"The feeling we have is that the ban will be lifted at the vote (by EU veterinary experts) next week," the official said.
Italy might try to block the deal, blaming coming elections there as a reason not to vote on the issue, the official added.
However, the vote will be by qualified majority and the executive European Commission is confident that Britain can answer any outstanding concerns other member states may have.
The beef export ban was imposed at the peak of the 1990s mad cow scare.
The country's beef exports to the European Union were halted in 1996 as the brain-wasting disease, known formally as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), spread.
Europe's outbreaks of BSE caused panic in the 1980s and 1990s with 184,000 cases registered in Britain by 2004.
About 150 people have died, mostly in Britain, from the human form of BSE, variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (vCJD), after eating tainted meat.
However, Britain's number of BSE cases fell from a peak of 37,000 in 1993 to 343 in 2004
BSE was caused by feeding cattle with infected parts of other cattle. The EU banned animal parts from feed and tightened food safety laws to limit what parts of cattle can enter the food chain.