British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair refused to be drawn today on whether he might delay a possible May 3 general election due to the escalating foot-and-mouth crisis.
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Mr Tony Blair
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Pressed by reporters at the EU summit whether he might put off calling early polls, Mr Blair insisted he was fully focused on containing foot-and-mouth disease and on helping farming communities hit by the livestock virus.
Earlier today, Blair appeared to suggest he had given himself 10 days to decide if he will call a general election on May 3 - but then changed his line when he discovered he was being filmed.
ITV showed images of Blair chatting to European Commission president Mr Romano Prodi during a European summit in Stockholm.
Mr Prodi asked him how much time he had left to decide whether to call the British parliamentary elections, widely expected to be called for the same day as the May 3 local elections in Britain.
Blair replied: "Ten days", the ITV pictures showed.
But then realising the camera was on him, Blair reverted to his official line: "for now, only local elections are planned for May 3".
Mr Blair appealed earlier today to his partners at a European summit today for extra veterinarians to help Britain fight its spiralling foot-and-mouth crisis.
He said his government was coming up with a comprehensive package which would include 100-percent compensation for farmers whose herds are being slaughtered, plus help to the tourism sector.
The scale of the foot-and-mouth crisis was dramatically underscored today in a government report warning that Britain "faced "a very large epidemic" - with the potential of about 4,000 cases by June.
The British government today ordered the precautionary "firebreak" cull to be extended to all parts of Britain and all infected animals to be slaughtered within 24 hours of diagnosis.
The cull of healthy animals within two miles of infected farms, already under way in Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway, was also to be extended.
Mr Blair also told the EU summit his government was grateful for the help it has already received from its European partners, "especially France", who have offered an unspecified number of specialists from its veterinary schools and possibly also from its armed forces. Finland was also offering help.
AFP