French president to tackle beef problem at European summit

PARIS - With fears over mad cow disease crippling beef sales in France, President Jacques Chirac promised Thursday to push the issue of food safety at next month's European Union summit.

The European Parliament, meanwhile, followed France's lead and urged the 15 EU members Thursday to ban feeds for all livestock containing meat from mammals - not just feeds for cattle.

France imposed a similar ban Tuesday. It also banned the T-bone steak, the second specialty to be slashed from the nation's menus in a week amid what many commentators describe as public hysteria over so-called mad cow disease.

France and the EU are hoping to protect the food chain from bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. The brain-wasting ailment is suspected by scientists to be linked to a similar human malady, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Earlier EU measures banned giving cattle any feeds containing ground meat and bone meal from mammals. Scientists believe mad cow disease originated in Britain when cattle were given feed containing the ground remains of sheep infected with a brain ailment.

Under the agreement passed Thursday by the 626-member EU assembly in Strasbourg, France, giving such feeds to sheep, goats, poultry, fish and pigs would also be barred. The parliament decision is not binding on EU governments.

The EU summit Dec. 7-8 in Nice, southern France, marks the end of France's six-month presidency of the 15-nation group. What should have been a showcase for French diplomacy has been marred by the mad cow scandal.

Last month, it was discovered that potentially infected meat made it onto supermarket shelves. Many school districts have banned beef from their canteens, and sales have slumped about 40 percent in a nation renowned for its love of meat.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of cases of mad cow disease found among animals in France this year - some 90 compared to 31 last year. The EU has said that part of the reason is more rigorous testing of animals.

The French public's fears are all the stronger because of a string of recent food scares, including an outbreak of listeriosis connected to pork tongue in gelatin.

Many have also been reminded of the so-called ''tainted blood affair'' of 1985, in which more than 4,000 people contracted the AIDS virus from blood transfusions. Many have since died, and several government officials stood trial over the affair.

Chirac met with farming leaders Thursday and promised to make food safety a key talking point at the summit, his spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said.

The head of France's largest farming union, Luc Guyau, said Chirac backed farmers' calls for an ambitious Europe-wide plan to supply enough vegetable proteins to replace animal-based feeds.

Also Thursday, a lawyer for the families of two French victims of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease said the families planned to sue authorities in France and Europe for alleged poisoning.

The families argue that not enough was done to warn people of the dangers of beef, or to ban animal-based feeds as soon as the risks were apparent. One of the victims has died and one is very ill.

One other person has died of the disease in France, but is not involved in the court action. In Britain, more than 80 people have died from the disease.