A British crisis management committee is to hold daily meetings in a desperate attempt to improve co-ordination and halt the spreading foot-and-mouth epidemic in the UK.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has reopened the Cobra management centre for the first time since the fuel crisis last September.
Members of the Cobra crisis committee, which is formed only to deal with national crises, met three times last week and will in future meet in the Cabinet Office every day, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The committee is chaired by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Nick Brown.
Eighteen new cases were confirmed by early yesterday evening, comprising 12 in Cumbria, four in Devon and two in Worcestershire. The Ministry announced 45 new cases on Saturday, with the total expected to exceed 600 later today. Government scientists now accept the epidemic is out of control and the outbreak could top 4,000 cases by June.
Some 525,000 pigs, sheep and cows have been or are about to be slaughtered, according to Ministry figures.
Mr Blair has given himself eight days to decide whether to call a May 3rd general election, or to delay the vote because of the crisis, Mr Blair's deputy, Mr John Prescott, said yesterday.
Mr Blair has until April 5th to dissolve parliament if he wishes to call a general election on May 3rd, but Mr Prescott told the BBC the Prime Minister would announce his decision on April 2nd at the latest.
Mr Prescott reiterated Mr Blair's position that local elections scheduled for May 3rd, regardless of a possible general election, should not be postponed lest Britain project the image of a country in chaos.
But the Conservatives are in favour of postponing the vote and have criticised the government's handling of the crisis.
"We have watched with increasing exasperation and anger as the government has continually underestimated the scale of the crisis, has failed to act with anything like the necessary speed or vigour and has consistently shown itself to be behind the game," the Tory leader, Mr William Hague, said.
Meanwhile, the British government said yesterday it would use a disused airfield in Cumbria to bury animal carcasses following a massive planned cull of sheep.
Some 200,000 animals either infected with the virus or thought to be at risk of spreading the disease could be disposed of at the airstrip in Carlisle.
"The Environment Agency has approved the site for mass slaughter and we now have diggers on site beginning to excavate a pit," said Ministry of Agriculture director Ms Jane Brown. The Environmental Agency has given the Ministry details of 15 giant landfill sites which could take millions of slaughtered cattle.