FARMERS are being asked to wait just a few more days before a clearer picture emerges of how long the foot-and-mouth epidemic will continue its hold over Britain.

Agriculture minister Nick Brown also urged them to cooperate fully with the Government's strategy for combating the virus.

In the face of some resistance to the culling of healthy animals, Mr Brown said he appreciated this was difficult for farmers to accept but it was vital for the overall success of the disease control policy.

By 5pm last night, the number of confirmed foot-and-mouth cases had risen by 29 to 1,164, fuelling hopes that the daily number of new cases was slowly reduc ing.

Mr Brown said there were "some encouraging signs" that the outbreak could be coming under control but it was "still too early to predict the future course of the epidemic".

In a statement updating MPs before the Easter recess, Mr Brown said the epidemic had so far cost more than half a billion pounds in aid to stricken farms.

A Maff spokesman said officials were trying to discover how cases had occurred in three areas previously unaffected by the disease - Whitby, in North Yorkshire, Jedburgh, in the Scottish Borders, and Caerphilly, in south Wales.

Meanwhile, the farmer at the centre of the foot-and-mouth epidemic has been paid £50,000 to re-establish his pig farming business.

Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland was the place where the disease which has devastated British agriculture was first diagnosed.

The swill Mr Waugh fed his pigs came under suspicion amid claims his animals were fed untreated meat from a Chinese restaurant.

Mr Waugh, who continues to protest his innocence, received pre-outbreak market prices for his 570 diseased swine.

Mr Waugh was summoned to a meeting with trading standards officials at Northumberland County Hall, in Morpeth, last Monday.

Read more about Foot-and-Mouth here.