The mounting cost of the foot-and-mouth epidemic is likely to force the issue onto the agenda when EU leaders meet in Stockholm today.
EU officials are concerned that the cost of compensating farmers is escalating and the Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, warned last night that the EU budget may not be able to provide much more help to those affected.
"I am willing to use all the resources available for the agricultural crises but we have such strict budget limits that we have no more resources available," he said.
The EU farm budget, which is set by the 15 member-states, is already under strain on account of compensation costs due to the BSE crisis.
The Swedish Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, is determined that this weekend's summit should not be the forum for a full-scale debate on the future of farm policy. But he appeared to accept yesterday that the leaders would have no option but to discuss the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs are likely to put pressure on their Austrian counterparts to revoke the unilateral ban on Irish food imports imposed by Vienna yesterday.
