Carwyn Jones: Army could be called in

The National Assembly announced new guidance on movement in the countryside on Tuesday.

Local authorities in non-infected areas will now have the discretion to decide whether or not to re-open some footpaths and rights of way to the public.

But even if some footpaths re-open, there will still be certain restrictions and precautions for the public to take, in order to minimise the risk of spreading the disease to animals in currently non-infected areas.

All footpaths in infected areas - Powys, most of Anglesey, Monmouthshire, parts of the Snowdonia National Park and the northern part of Ceredigion, will remain closed.

A number of steps to ease the financial burden on the countryside - including rate cuts for the rural community are expected from the Welsh Assembly later on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Church in Wales is considering a plan to hand back money to its parishes to enable them to respond to the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The plan to help the countryside will be discussed by a meeting of bishops in Wales later this week.

The Archbishop of Wales Dr Rowan Williams said the Church recognises the levels of despair and need in the farming community, and wanted to respond.

He also called on the Prime Minister to look very carefully at the need to stage a General Election when the countryside was in such crisis.

Churches in rural communties have themselves been hit with foot-and-mouth forcing some to close because of their inability to raise funds.

Bishops will also discuss whether the Church in Wales should set up a hardship fund for farmers which would be similar to one already established in England.

But that would take longer and the advantage of returning money to parishes is that it would have an immediate impact in the areas worst hit by the crisis.

Open letter

The UK government has announced that the Army is being used in Devon to clear a backlog of slaughtered animals.

Mr Jones also described the present foot-and-mouth crisis as being worse than the one in 1967.

He has sent an open letter to farmers in north Montgomeryshire explaining why apparently thousands of apparently healthy sheep must die in a cull.

He has said the whole future of the Welsh livestock industry is at stake.

He warned that Wales now faced a real battle to keep foot-and-mouth off the open hillsides, where it would be extremely hard to remove.

Archbishop Williams: Help

His letter ends with an appeal to all farmers to support the State Veterinary Service -- and not to move livestock illegally.

On Tuesday the number of confirmed outbreaks in Wales rose to 26, with farms at Brynsiencyn on Anglesey and Church Stoke in Montgomeryshire the latest sites of the disease.

Among other measures to halt the spread of the disease. Wales's first disinfectant centre set up in Aberystwyth for hauliers involved in the transport of livestock under licence.

And in the Brecon Beacons National Park, tourism operators are being issued with a charter to follow, with clear guidelines about where they can visit safely.

Schoolchildren in Montgomeryshire are also to be told they can go back to school after an enforced break of three weeks.