"Asia is already by far the most important producing and consuming region for sugar," Fry told the seminar on "Asia's Future Role in the World Sugar and Other Sweeteners Market." However he said that doubts exist about China, the biggest potential new market for sugar, because of the upsurge in use of intense sweeteners as a cheap substitute.

EU on farm subsidies
Agriculture is one of three main areas blocking an international agreement on an opening declaration planned for the Seattle meeting. In particular, the Cairns Group of farm exporting nationsis pushing the EU to commit to eliminating export subsidies as a goal of the talks which are expected to last three years, Lamy said. "Of course, we will not agree to that," he said, noting that the EU views agricultural reform as a "long-term process." Last month at a summit between European Commission President Romano Prodi and the US president Bill Clinton, EU officials said they would make a proposal for resolving a decade-old dispute over hormone-treated beef by the Seattle meeting. "We're working hard on that" but not yet ready to make an offer, Lamy said.

Egypt gas export scheme
Shell Egyp will propose a scheme to export Egyptian gas either by pipeline or as liquefied natural gas (LNG), its chairman Roger Patey said on Tuesday. "We may table both (proposals)," he told Reuters, adding that Shell would submit its plans to Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy and the head of the state Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) within a month. He would not say where the gas would be sold. "I would prefer not to specify the markets at this stage," Patey said.

He said the gas for export would come from Shell's North East Mediterranean block offshore the Nile Delta, where the first of five wells is to be drilled in the middle of next year. Patey said the company was committed to spending $160 million on the block in the first five years and had "very high expectations" of finding gas and oil there. He praised last week's decision by the Egyptian cabinet to move ahead with gas export schemes.

France awaiting lifting UK beef ban
France has received proposals from London for lifting its ban on British beef, but was waiting on Monday for parallel plans from the European Commission before deciding whether to end the embargo, a government source said. Both sets of proposals, which include testing beef for mad cow disease and tighter labelling, will be submitted to France's food safety agency which will recommend to the government whether the embargo should be lifted, the source told Reuters.

"We are waiting for the document from the Commission. It should not be late, it's a question of hours," the source said. The source said the food safety agency would fix the date of the meeting for experts but they may not be immediately available to convene. "We hope that it will be done quickly," the source said. British beef was banned across the European Union in 1996 after outbreaks of mad cow disease among herds.

China to maintain palm oil imports
China will maintain its palm oil imports from Malaysia in 1999 at last year's level, a Chinese official said on Tuesday. "This year the volume of exports to China will be kept at the same level as last year," China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference in the Malaysian capital. China imported about one million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in 1998. Malaysian Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik said last week that China has approved additional quotas for import of palm oil which will last until March 2000. In August, Malaysia asked China to import 500,000 tonnes of palm oil on top of the one million tonnes already approved.