Germany's new agriculture minister Mr Karl-Heinz Funke on his first day in office yesterday said the European Union's Agenda 2000 farm reform plan could be agreed by the end of March 1999.

But, in interviews published by the farm union in his home state of Lower Saxony, he also cautioned he would not yield to time pressures if he was dissatisfied with the quality of reform measures.

Mr Funke said EU agriculture had to become more competitive to participate more effectively in world export markets: "There is no alternative to a stronger market orientation, both nationally and internationally."

Mr Funke will head the EU farm council in the first half of 1999 when Germany will hold the rotating EU presidency.