Northern Ireland ministers will be briefed today on efforts to ensure meat and dairy exports from the North are not affected by the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain.
Ministers and senior civil servants are to be briefed by First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew.
However officials were keen to stress that the briefing did not amount to an emergency cabinet meeting. "Ministers are essentially being kept up to speed as to what is being done to ensure that foot and mouth remains out of Northern Ireland," a Stormont source said.
The European Standing Committee for Food Safety and Animal Health has ratified a European Commission decision to allow Northern Ireland meat and dairy exports to continue while banning the rest of the United Kingdom.
Northern Ireland has been granted special status because of the joint action the power-sharing executive took with the Republic to keep foot-and-mouth out of Ireland following last Friday's British outbreak.
The decision followed concerns that Japanese, German and South American markets were turning away meat and dairy exports from Northern Ireland because of confusion about the export ban.
PA