The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has promised his personal support to United Kingdom farmers in their present crisis.

Ben Gill: "This is an undertaking...to root out the causes of our problems"

The president of the National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, Ben Gill, said Mr Blair had told him earlier this month that he backed the union's attempt to reduce unnecessary and costly bureaucracy.

"I have an undertaking, not only from the Agriculture Minister but also from Mr Blair himself, that this will be given full priority".

Mr Gill would not give any details of the form in which Mr Blair gave his undertaking.

However, he said the NFU was reconsidering its earlier decision to hold a rally at the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth next week.

Reassessment

Asked by BBC News Online if this meant the union had been bought off by the government, he said it had not.

Ben Gill, heartened by "massive" response

"It's not a matter of buying off, it's a matter of reassessing your strategic approach to the problems facing the industry as matters develop."

But Mr Gill told News Online he was "encouraged by the agreement I've reached with the government in achieving the package of short-term measures that's been announced".

"The statements in the last few weeks indicate the government has started to listen to the problems."

Mr Gill was speaking at the launch of a report detailing the early results of an audit of farmers on the effects the crisis is having on them.

More than 5,000 farmers returned their audit questionnaires, out of more than 80,000 sent out - a return the NFU describes as "massive".

Many respondents sent the NFU letters with the completed questionnaires to explain their plight in more detail.

Mr Gill quoted one which said: "We are both old stagers and will soldier on in the hope that we will be around to see the up-turn.

"Have you ever heard of a farmer having a 37-hour week, or saying he's past his finishing time when a cow is calving?"

No family life

Another letter, from a woman farmer, said: "All we're asking is a decent living, not just existing as we are now".

"We never have a holiday or dine out. Everything we have to buy is going up, and everything we sell is going down."

Mr Gill said the replies, which were still coming in, "quantify the anecdotal evidence we have been hearing across the country".