The European Union yesterday lifted its threat to ban all US beef imports after accepting assurances from Washington that it had increased controls to ensure the meat does not contain hormones.

The decision will ease friction between the two trading blocs, although a wider dispute over whether the EU is able to ban hormone-treated beef has still to be resolved.

The hormone ban, challenged at the World Trade Organisation by the US, has been in place since 1988 but the EU has been importing about $20 million a year of supposedly hormone-free beef in recent years. In April it announced plans to ban these imports from today.

The European Commission agreed to postpone a possible ban to allow further progress in talks.