When the announcement came it was a bombshell.

The French government had appeared to be moving towards lifting its ban on British beef when Prime Minister Jospin and his cabinet met to discuss the latest advice from the country's food safety agency.

But instead of further progress in soothing the diplomatic row, France came out with a blunt "Non".

The European food safety commissioner David Byrne said he was surprised and disappointed, and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the French decision to keep their ban in place as "totally unjustified".

Britain's farmers are furious and indeed one of their leaders has questioned whether France should be allowed to remain in the European Union.

Relations at low ebb

It is undoubtedly a low point in recent relations between Britain and France. Lionel Jospin tried to soften the blow by warning Tony Blair a short time before the announcement was made.

There was no such call for David Byrne who'd been trying for three months to resolve the dispute on behalf of the European Commission.

At a news conference in Brussels, Mr Byrne said he had no alternative but to proceed with legal action against France in the European Court of Justice as soon as possible.

He'll ask the Commission - the European Union's executive body - to take the next legal move against France at a meeting in Strasbourg on Tuesday.

That would be in the form of what's called a reasoned opinion - effectively a written warning. After that, the case could be put before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg - a process which can take months or even years.

Two sides at loggerheads

On the two sides of the argument there are very different views of what's at stake.

The French government say they're acting in the interests of public safety. As long as there are any doubts about British beef they're not willing to put consumers at risk.

The British government say they have the strictest rules in the world for beef that's to be exported. After the scandal of BSE, or mad cow disease, Britain complied with a stringent scheme approved by the European Union.

In Britain, there's considerable anger that France should be refusing to uphold European Union law. Tony Blair has said countries can't pick and choose what rules of the European market they obey.

The row is certain to cast a cloud over this weekend's European heads of government summit in Helsinki where EU leaders were supposed to be discussing the enlargement of the European Union.

Instead, it looks as if they'll be preoccupied with limiting the damage in the dispute between two of the union's most powerful members.