The beef war between France and Britain moved to diplomatic ground last night following a devastating salvo against the French from the EU's independent scientists.
The reserve troops, still out of sight but on almost impregnable ground, are Commission lawyers preparing for a coup de grace in the European Court of Justice.
But Paris and London are both signalling strongly they want to avoid going that far.
Following the decisive ruling last night by the EU Scientific Steering Committee against the "new" French evidence of weaknesses in the system of British controls, the Commissioner for Food Safety, Mr David Byrne, last night said:
"I believe that the French and German authorities need to take stock of the committee's opinion and lift their national restrictions on imports of British beef. Those restrictions are no longer necessary in the light of the safeguards in place."
Mr Byrne promised "speedy solutions" and sources close to him confirm that he expects to meet French and British ministers on Tuesday or Wednesday, both bilaterally and together.
There are understood to be some hopes that a formula involving labelling of British beef on French markets may be acceptable to the British and go some way to meeting French concerns.
The British Agriculture Secretary, Mr Nick Brown, has hinted at a labelling option, although the Commission could not legislate for such a bilateral agreement.
The source close to Mr Byrne said he did not expect the Commissioner to put the option of legal action against France to next Wednesday's Commission. To do so could aggravate talks and would anyway involve months even under the Union's "urgency" procedures .
The French did not react officially to yesterday's decision, promising a formal response next week.
A senior official attached to the Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, told Reuters: "We will examine it. It's only a scientific communique. There is no reason to rush.
"There will be talks between the different agencies concerned at the start of the week. We will lay down our position after discussions early next week," the official said.
In contrast, the British reacted immediately and positively: "It is exactly what we had hoped for and worked to achieve," said the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
"We said throughout that we had the law on our side and science on our side. We have shown that by playing by the rules, putting your cause calmly but forcefully, it is possible to win for Britain in Europe," he said.
Mr Brown said that with the committee's ruling behind them, he hoped that the dispute with France could be resolved without recourse to legal action through the European courts.
At a Brussels news conference, Mr Byrne described the scientific committee's report as "comprehensive, reasoned and balanced" and praised the scientists - chaired by Dr Gerard Pascal, from France - for "the highest standard of scientific evidence."
"It is vital that Europe demonstrate it is capable of resolving differences in a mature and reasoned way, and that all concerned respect the rule of law," he said.
The verdict came after two days and nearly 16 hours of talks between the independent experts.
"The SSC today concluded unanimously that it does not share the concern expressed by the French Food Safety Agency about the safety of the meat and meat products exported by the UK under the Date-Based Export Scheme," said a statement by the committee.
After studying details of the French allegations, the committee found there was no new evidence which justified any change of heart about the safety of British beef.
The statement firmly dismissed French fears that the decline in the number of new British cases of BSE was levelling out.
Mr Brown, who has staged his own personal boycott of French food and drink to protest at the continued ban, said he looked forward to an improvement in Anglo-French relations following yesterday's decision, not only between governments but also the peoples of both nations.
"I think a speedy settlement of this will go a long way", he told Sky News. "I hope I can join my colleague, Mr Jean Glavany [the French Minister] in a glass of French wine as we settle this next week."
He shouldn't uncork the bottle just yet.