Japan said today it was extending a ban on imports of cloven-hoofed animals and related products to the whole of the European Union due to growing fears about foot-and-mouth disease.
Japan's agriculture ministry said the ban will take effect from tomorrow and will last until Japan confirms food safety in the EU.
The document also said the ministry will send four animal health experts to Britain, France, Italy, Denmark and Belgium for one week.
Previously the ban had only applied to the four countries where an outbreak of the disease has been confirmed - Ireland, the Netherlands, Britain and France.
The EU's main meat export to Japan is pork, the main supplier of which is Denmark. Japan's pork imports totalled 650,595 tonnes last year, of which Denmark supplied one-third.
Ireland supplied 11,404 tonnes of frozen pork to Japan in 2000, France sold 22,405 tonnes and the Netherlands exported 10,153 tonnes.
Japan was hit by foot-and-mouth in March last year, for the first time in 90 years. The country's disease-free status was restored by the World Animal Health Organisation in September 2000, after an eradication programme.