MINISTERS launched a concerted drive last night to get the farming industry onside ahead of a likely decision to use vaccination as a "firebreak" against foot-and-mouth disease.

The Prime Minister focused on the issue during a 90-minute meeting with National Farmers' Union president Ben Gill at Downing Street.

A spokesman for Tony Blair said the Government would have to make a decision within 48 hours on vaccination.

Following the meeting, Mr Gill said there were "positive signs" that the present policy of mass slaughter was working.

He acknowledged, however, that it was necessary to consider whether that policy needed to be augmented by vaccination in Cumbria, the worst-hit area of the country.

Nationwide, there are now 771 outbreaks, with 29 cases confirmed yesterday.

There have been new cases in County Durham at East Farm, Middlestone Village, Whins Farm, Newfield, and Lynburn Hall, Knavesmire, Hamsterley. Two cases were also confirmed in Northumberland, at Widdrington, and Marlish, near Morpeth.

Army and Maff officials are expected to announce today suitable sites for mass graves in the region.

Meanwhile, the first of almost 1,000 cattle were being burned last night as pyres lit up the skies of North Yorkshire. A special burner was brought from Cumbria to destroy a 219-strong herd at Park Hill Farm, Danby Wiske, near Northallerton.

A further 750 dairy cattle from three neighbouring farms will also be destroyed and burned as a precaution.

Earlier, Tory leader William Hague publicly urged Mr Blair to abandon any plans for a May 3 General Election, arguing it would be irresponsible during the current crisis.

He also criticised the speed of the response to the epidemic at a public meeting in Hawes, North Yorkshire.

"The priority has to be stop the spread of the disease and I have been exasperated at the apparent lack of urgency displayed by the Government," he said.

Mr Hague added he would press the Government to agree a £500m fund to support, through interest-free loans, businesses on the edge of collapse.

At Lynburn Hall, in Hamsterley, County Durham, more than a hundred cattle and 500 ewes and lambs were slaughtered and buried yesterday.

Anthony Coatsworth runs the farm with his father Bobby, who said: "It is terrible to think that all those animals are being slaughtered and we can't do anything about it."

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