EU officials said Brussels no longer requires all British beef to be de-boned as a prerequisite for lifting the worldwide trade blockade on exports.

But de-boning will still be demanded for exported beef - and with Germany still leading objections to resuming full export trade, an end to the worldwide ban could still be months away.

Britain banned the sale of beef on the bone from 1 January because of the risk of people contracting nvCJD from eating it.

The commission said its recommendations to EU veterinary experts no longer included insistence that all British beef for domestic consumption must be de-boned.

But a commission spokesman warned that opposition still remained among some member states to a full resumption of British beef exports.

Link began ban

British beef exports to Europe were banned in March 1996 after the government admitted that there was a probable link between BSE and a variant of Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (nvCJD), a fatal brain-wasting condition in humans.

Nick Brown: Large efforts to lift beef on bone ban

So far 27 people have died in Britain of nvCJD.

Earlier this month Agriculture Minister Nick Brown said he soon hoped to lift the ban on beef-on-the-bone sales.

Exports have already resumed for beef from Northern Ireland because of the province's comprehensive computer checking system monitoring cattle at high risk from BSE.

In a separate move the EC is likely to impose a beef ban on Portugal.