THE Government was showing signs of wavering on its announced plans to slaughter thousands of healthy sheep to prevent the spread of foot and mouth, a move which has caused uproar in Cumbria and other badly affected areas.

Although there were still conflicting signals coming out of Whitehall this morning - not for the first time in this crisis - the postponement could be the result of top level meetings this week, one of them yesterday between NFU president Ben Gill and the Prime Minister at 10, Downing Street.

In what was said to be a pretty bruising meeting, Mr Gill, who farms in Yorkshire, told Mr Blair is no uncertain terms that to start killing healthy animals when it was taking three or four days to slaughter those which had actually been confirmed as infected was causing huge bitterness amongst his members.

He said in a statement issued after the meeting: "No wonder there was such a strong reaction by Cumbrian farmers at the announcement of additional culling last week."

"They were going through the fear and pain of seeing infected animals which had been diagnosed three to four days earlier still awaiting slaughter and polluting the countryside with more viruses. These must be tackled first."

"Following this the Prime Minister gave a robust commitment and direction for this problem to be resolved - and resolved urgently."

"He repeated to his senior staff and Agriculture Minister Nick Brown that every resource must be made available to deliver the target of slaughter within 24 hours of diagnosis."

Rural business help welcomed

On a more optimistic note, the NFU gave a cautious welcome to the House of Commons announcement by Environment Minister Michael Meacher of a raft of financial measures aimed at easing the burden on thousands of rural businesses.

The measures include relief for business rates and VAT and a "sympathetic" approach on taxes from the Inland Revenue. The NFU said the measures might help rural businesses, including farms, to "weather the storm."

Others were less grateful. One Cumbrian hotelier commented: "I only pay VAT on my receipts and as I am receiving nothing at the moment I won't be due for VAT. Now if the Government gave me back the £50,000 I paid in VAT last year, that would be really useful."

Other developments include:

• The political row over whether a general election should be held in May gets increasingly bitter. Tony Blair, who is said to be keen on a May 3rd poll, is accused of "breathtaking cynicism" by today's Daily Express and Shadow Chancellor Michael told the House of Commons that it was obscene to be thinking of an election "whilst the countryside is facing meltdown."

• But, conceivably, it could be worse… The poverty-stricken African state of Rwanda, where hundreds of thousands of people were massacred in an attack of genocide some years ago, has now been struck by foot and mouth. The country, in which cattle count as wealth, cannot afford disinfectant to help control the disease and farmers receive no compensation for slaughtered animals.