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European Union (EU) food security experts on Wednesday agreed in Brussels to lift a 10-year export ban on British beef introduced during the 1990s mad cow crisis.

The removal of the ban was unanimously approved at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Food Chain and Animal Health of the 25-member European bloc.

"The UK has made great strides in tackling this disease, and has met all of the criteria that were set for the lifting of the beef export ban," EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou said in a statement.

"We must now acknowledge this and resume normal trade in this area," he said.

According to EU rules, the European Parliament has 30 days to examine the experts' decision, which also applies to British exports of live cattle and calves.

British beef exports to the other EU members were halted in 1996 as brain-wasting Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), widely known as mad cow disease, spread through the country.

Up to 150 people are believed to have fallen victim to BSE, or Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, after eating tainted meat.

The ban ravaged Britain's beef industry, whose main market was France. In 1995, Britain shipped some 274,000 tonnes of beef to the other EU members at a value of ￡ 520 million(US$905 million).

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2006)