THE European Union should consider setting up a group of scientific advisers to review the possible link between "mad cow" disease and its deadly human equivalent, a new European Commission report says.
The report, which will be debated by the Health Council tomorrow, says the EU should also consider creating a system to identify cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease (CJD), a fatal degenerative brain disease, and control its spread.
The Commission said figures provided by the 15 EU states did not provide any evidence that the incidence of CJD - about one case per million population - was rising. However, it said they must be interpreted cautiously because they were collected by different methods and because the disease takes some time to develop.
The British government sparked a crisis in March when it announced that scientists said there could be a link between mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and a new strain of CJD that was striking young people.
The EU then imposed a worldwide ban on British beef products and has been negotiating with Britain on ways to eradicate BSE.
The Commission's report said all EU states except Belgium, Greece and Spain had taken specific action to monitor or conduct research into CJD.
The figures show that Britain has had 276 confirmed or suspected CJD deaths since 1990 including 43 in 1995. That compares with 53 confirmed or suspected cases (rather than deaths), of CJD in Germany in 1995, 47 in France and 42 in Italy.
The report outlined a range of options for strengthening EU action, including the group of scientific advisers, which it said could review research into BSE and CJD and recommend future study into the possible link between the two.
It said the EU should also consider expanding to all member states a system of exchanging information about CJD exists between Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the British government will this week demand a full lifting of the EU ban on heel, insisting that any partial move will not satisfy an angry public, farmers and MPs.
The row is set to overshadow the state visit of French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, who arrives in Britain tomorrow.
The beef issue will dominate, the Commons, with debates today, and when the Common Agricultural Policy is discussed on Wednesday and Thursday.
Angry Tory backbenchers are threatening to vote against the government and inflict an embarrassing defeat over its handling of the CAP if tough talk on beef by ministers is not matched by action.
Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind yesterday appeared not to rule out retaliation against the EU if no satisfactory agreement is reached.
"We will do whatever is in our power to actually resolve this problem because we recognise both the seriousness of the problem and the sense of frustration of the people in this country," he told GMTV's Sunday programme.