At a meeting this week, veterinary experts from at least 10 EU countries voiced their support for the British beef ban to be removed after Britain presented them with its latest BSE update.

But about the same number asked for more information, with the most concern coming from Germany and Austria, so British authorities will now provide more epidemiological information and technical details on the country's BSE testing system.

Assuming Britain's fellow EU member states are satisfied at the vets' next meeting in mid-January, the European Commission will ask them to end the ban on British beef exports for good.

"Nobody has indicated, at this stage at least, their opposition to lifting the restrictions...or that they have fundamental concerns," one Commission official told Reuters.

"Some countries have asked for more data, but that's not a surprise," he said. "The Commission is still planning to present a draft decision (on lifting the ban) in January. We would be on course for the end of the first quarter if things go well."

Britain has already fulfilled the first precondition for lifting the embargo with a moderate risk status for BSE of fewer than 200 cattle per million per year affected with the disease.

Britain's last full year of beef exports was in 1995 when shipments amounted to some 274,000 tonnes. The main market was France, which took 80,000 tonnes.

Several schemes have been put in place to enable Britain to continue to export beef but trade has been very limited.

Among these was a date-based scheme that made it possible to sell, subject to certain conditions, meat derived from animals aged between six and 30 months at the time of slaughter and born in Britain after August 1996.