Ministers crush Ulster's hopes on beef

Thirteen of the fifteen European Union governments have said that they are ready to explore easing the ban on beef exports from Northern Ireland.

But the Government is so split on the issue that it has failed to open negotiations with Brussels, despite mounting anger from Ulster farmers whose export trade has been decimated by the embargo. A protracted Cabinet row could jeopardise John Major's wafer-thin parliamentary majority if the nine Ulster Unionist MPs, who have strong support in mainly Protestant farming constituencies, decide to vote against the Government.

In recent days, the Irish EU presidency has been informed by every capital except Bonn that they could support lifting the ban for certified herds in Northern Ireland provided a slaughter of 1,600 high-risk cattle is carried out in the province. So desperate are the farmers that they have offered to finance the cull themselves.

Ivan Yates, the Irish agriculture minister, confirmed he had been canvassing the idea. "I have to say that a majority of states were sympathetic to some solution that would limit animal movements between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom," he said.

Diplomatic sources said that even the Germans did not rule out the concession and were open to discussing it, but only if Whitehall comes forward with a blueprint for meeting the veterinary and health conditions.

The Northern Ireland Office has been lobbying the Government to seek separate treatment on the basis that Ulster would pass the EU test on herds certified free of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) almost automatically. It is divided from the rest of the UK by water, has a low incidence of BSE and has the most advanced cattle tracing system in Europe. These arguments have now been accepted by the European Commission, which is ready to recommend that Northern Ireland could open the way for the eventual easing of the ban on all herds in Britain which can be certified BSE-free.

However, Franz Fischler, the European agriculture commissioner, is not prepared to propose the early removal of the blockade for Scotland - even though it also has many herds which have never had BSE - because of the difficulties of policing the border with England.

EU sources suspect that Michael Forsyth, the Secretary of State for Scotland, took the unusual decision to attend talks between EU agriculture ministers in Luxembourg this week principally to ensure that Northern Ireland would win no concessions which will not be available to Scotland for the foreseeable future.

Cabinet divisions on the issue were reflected by the unprecedented assembly of five UK ministers at the Luxembourg meeting. Mr Forsyth and the Minister of Agriculture, Douglas Hogg, both publicly reiterated that they were there to lobby for a "UK-wide" easing of the embargo for BSE-free herds. Baroness Denton, the Northern Ireland Agriculture minister, said Northern Ireland would be a frontrunner if the EU were to allow exports of beef from certified BSE-free herds, but she was excluded from a bilateral meeting between the UK delegation and Mr Fischler last Monday.

Mr Yates has been using his EU presidency to push for a separate solution for Northern Ireland based on its unique computerised cattle tracing system. He has a vested interest: enforcing the beef ban is costing the Republic pounds 500,000 a week in border patrols.