Farmers clash with riot police in Brussels

Farmers threatened with financial ruin by Europe's mad cow crisis have clashed with riot police outside the venue of an EU agriculture…

Farmers threatened with financial ruin by Europe's mad cow crisis have clashed with riot police outside the venue of an EU agriculture ministers' meeting in Brussels.

Police fired water cannons to force back groups of farmers who hurled stones, firecrackers and snowballs at barbed-wire barricades set up on the streets leading to the bunker-like Council of Ministers building.

No injuries were reported, and no tear gas was fired.

At the park gates, Belgian farmers set up a barbecue, grilling free steak sandwiches to underscore their belief that European beef is safe to eat despite public fears of BSE.

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Some farmers wore T-shirts emblazoned: "We're going to get slaughtered."

EU agriculture ministers will meet later today to update measures to contain the spread of BSE, rebuild the battered EU beef market and bail out farmers who stand on the edge of financial ruin.

This morning farmers choked off main avenues into Brussels with more than 1,000 tractors, causing rush-hour gridlock.

A Belgian federal police spokesman said over 1,000 extra officers had been mobilized for the demonstrations, called by Belgian farmers with the support of French anti-globalization campaigner Mr Jose Bove.

Besides reviewing the mad cow crisis, the EU farm ministers were to study an experts' report that another form of BSE could hit sheep and goats in the form of a disease known as scrapie.

They were also to get a first-hand report from British colleague Mr Nick Brown on the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in English pigs and cattle.

AFP