The European Union said it would demand the removal from sale and destruction of pork and cattle products from farms that used feed tainted with the chemical dioxin.

EU vets have already ordered the destruction of millions of pounds worth of chicken and egg products exported from Belgium since 15 January.

Belgium also acted to reduce the fallout from the scare by banning the slaughter and transportation of all poultry, cattle and pigs while it confirmed which farms had used the contaminated feed.

Health Minister Luc Van den Bossche said the ban would last until Sunday.

The United States has also announced plans for a temporary ban on chicken and pork products from European Union countries until the scale of the problem has been established.

Belgium's new health minister Luc van den Bossche plans to name pig farms which had used animal feed tainted with a cancer-causing chemical, and have their products withdrawn from sale.

Shereen Wheeler in Brussels: "Forbidden foods"

Similar bans are already in force for Belgian poultry producers, which have used the dioxin-contaminated feed.

The scandal has already forced two Belgian ministers to resign after allegations that they had waited three months before ordering the poultry restrictions.

Mr van den Bossche said officials were drawing up a list of pig farms, which has used the suspect feed.

Trace and destroy

The original EU ban, which stopped short of imposing a total ban on Belgian poultry, was made before the pig connection was announced in Belgium.

Belgium is also in the middle of an election campaign

France, Germany and Holland are the three believed to be most at risk from importing Belgian animal feed or products.

France has begun withdrawing from shops eggs and chickens produced at French farms thought to have used the tainted Belgian feed. It has also quarantined at least 70 poultry farms.

Russia has threatened to extend its existing ban on Belgian poultry meat imports to France, Germany and the Netherlands.

The latest food scare is the latest in a series of scandals across Europe including

• mad cow disease in Britain
• tranquilliser residues found in Belgian pork
• listeria in cheese in France.

Two arrested

Two managers of the Verkest animal-feed company have been arrested and charged with fraud in connection with the Belgian case.

The Verkest factory at the centre of the scare

The charges against Lucien Verkest and his son Jan relate to selling fats that were not 100% animal fats, as indicated on invoices, a spokeswoman from the Belgian prosecutor said.

The fats were then allegedly passed onto about 12 feed manufacturers, and then to farms, mainly in Belgium.

Verkest has been singled out as the source of the contamination.