BRUSSELS, Aug 20: Britain is seeking to persuade its EU partners this week to resume imports of British meat by restricting its ban to the area around the English farms where foot and mouth disease has been found, sources said on Monday.

An EU veterinary expert panel will meet in Brussels on Thursday to reconsider the ban imposed early this month.

London hopes the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCOFCAH) will agree to ‘regionalise’ the ban, thereby designating most of Britain a “low-risk” area for the disease, meaning meat and dairy produce could be exported although a livestock ban would remain, the sources said.

At current the whole of Britain, with the exception of Northern Ireland is considered a high-risk area with the ban extending to foodstuffs. The EU committee at its last meeting imposed the ban until August 25.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is backing Britain’s moves to get the wider banned lifted as soon as possible.

At Thursday’s meeting “we expect to discuss the scope of high-risk and low-risk zones,” said Philip Tod, spokesman for EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou.

“Our aim is to regionalise as soon as the situation allows,” he added.

A European diplomatic source said that Britain was seeking to have the high-risk zone restricted to the area around the Surrey farms in southern England where the highly infectious disease has been found.—AFP