France has yet to lift the ban on British beef

Lead: Paris, June 20 (Reuters) - despite Prime Minister Tony Blair's renewed call this week to lift the ban on British beef imports, France is not ready to do so, French officials said on Thursday However, France's central left government has asked its food watchdog to review the ban, which six years ago created tensions between France and Britain The news seems to be a glimmer of hope for British farmers Sources close to the French Prime Minister said: "there is no decision or action to lift the ban at this time There is no change in the policy we are carrying out No scientific argument can be found that will allow us to change our current position " Although France has so far failed to make concessions to change a policy that appears to benefit its farmers, the French food safety agency (afssa) said Thursday that just days before Blair's visit to Chirac, the government had asked it to review its 1999 proposal to maintain the ban The French government will generally listen to the advice of afssa when formulating measures on food safety, especially on the issue of mad cow disease French media quoted Chirac as saying after his meeting with Blair on Wednesday that the AFSSA will make a decision by the end of 6 But before making any policy on whether to lift the ban on beef in the UK, we need to get the latest data from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) The data will not be available until late June or early July "Only when we have enough new evidence will we consider when we can change our original view," afssa director Monique eloit told Reuters This will depend on the data provided by the FSA But it's very difficult to reach a conclusion before the end of June As the announcement said, the worst may be to wait until September " Despite the EU's decision to lift the ban in 1999, France has been sticking to its ban on British beef on the grounds of scientific basis, resisting the pressure from Brussels Eloit said that the situation of BSE had changed since 1999, and the UK's response to BSE had improved Britain said it had successfully put out the epidemic of mad cow disease and protested that the loss of the beef market in France was unfair to British farmers who were trying to recover from last year's foot-and-mouth disease disaster So far, France remains sceptical of scientific arguments about the safety of British beef and insists it will not reopen its port to British beef soon.