THE British Agriculture Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, will seek a new deal from Brussels today in the light of fresh evidence about the prospects of eradicating mad cow disease.
But he faces an uphill struggle convincing the EU farm commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, and Britain's European partners that it is safe to cut the scale of the selective cattle slaughter due to start next month.
The deal, to cull 147,000 of the highest risk animals from BSE infected herds, has already been approved by the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, in return for an end to the current worldwide ban on UK beef exports. This is in addition to the 450,000 older beasts which have so far been incinerated in response to the crisis.
But now, with Mr Major facing the prospect of a parliamentary defeat over the scale of the cull, Mr Hogg is relying on an Oxford University report to win EU support to reduce the numbers.
The minister is attending a two day meeting of EU farm ministers to review the success of Britain's anti BSE measures.
British government officials admitted this weekend it was unlikely that any other member states would down grade the antiBSE measures before the cull has even started.