IMPATIENCE with Britain will increase in this State if Ireland is prevented from conducting an effective EU presidency because of London's "stonewalling tactics" over the BSE crisis, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has warned.

Mr Ahern told a meeting of MEPs from the Union for Europe Group in Dublin Castle yesterday that few member states would understand if the interests of the entire EU - including Britain were "kicked around for British electoral purposes".

The two day conference, linked to the Irish presidency of the EU, attracted 56 MEPs from Italy, France, Portugal and Greece.

Mr Ahern said "some of the phobias about Europe being expressed in certain British political and media circles show an extraordinary immaturity".

It was important that a framework be established soon for resolving the issues related to BSE because the longer it remained in the headlines, the more difficult it was to rebuild consumer confidence.

Mr Gerry Collins MEP, in a report on problems linked to structural intervention, said that despite the success of structural funding, the problem of unemployment remained.

There was a net creation of jobs in Ireland in 1994 and in 1995 but the benefit of this positive development had not been felt by the long term unemployed and others on the margins of the economy.

He said it was "important to have indicators for elements of the programmes [in the Community Support Framework] which are best able to tackle the problem of combating long term unemployment".

. Britain more than doubled exports of animal feed potentially contaminated with the agent that causes BSE after banning the use of such feed itself, it was reported yesterday. According to government records, tens of thousands of tonnes of such feed were exported after a 1988 ban on using it in Britain.

Also yesterday, the British government rejected new EU pressure to widen its cattle slaughter. EU scientific and veterinary experts said the cull should go back to 1989, adding another year to the slaughter programme.