(BRUSSELS) - EU nations agreed on Monday to ease foot-and-mouth disease restrictions on British and Cypriot meat exports, as no new cases have been discovered recently, the European Commission said.

European veterinary experts agreed, along with the Commission, that meat and meat products could once again be exported from anywhere in Britain, although a ban on livestock would remain in place for animals from the Surrey area of southeast England where the disease first surfaced in September.

There was a lesser easing of the rules for Cyprus, with only pork exports allowed to resume from "nearly the whole island," and even those will still be subject to animal health checks, according to the EU's executive arm.

The measures were decided by the EU's Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health "to reflect the fact that there have been no recent outbreaks in either country".

With the exception of "Surrey and surroundings" Britain was officially declared foot-and-mouth free, meaning meat and livestock can be traded normally "with only a few additional precautionary checks," the Commission said.

All foot-and-mouth disease measures for Britain will elapse at the end of the year if there are no new cases of the disease in the meantime.

"This is clearly good news for farmers," a British diplomat said, adding that the EU's decision reflected work done to strictly contain the outbreak in southeast England.

"The resumption of exports will relieve he real pressure that farmers have been facing," she added.

The decision to allow Cyprus to export pork, under strict controls, was taken because "pigs are raised separately and under different conditions to ruminants, and are considered to be less susceptible to foot-and-mouth disease," the Commission said.

Cyprus has culled hundreds of animals this time round in a bid to contain its first foot-and-mouth outbreak in more than 40 years.

Foot-and-mouth last appeared in Britain in 2001 and spread rapidly across the country, ravaging the farming and tourism sectors.

Then up to 10 million animals were culled in Britain in an outbreak which cost the national economy about eight billion pounds (12 billion euros, 16 billion dollars).

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