LONDON, Mar 15, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The British government was set to announce Thursday the slaughter of another 100,000 sheep to try to bring its foot-and-mouth epidemic under control.

Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown was scheduled to outline to Parliament the plans for a "pre-emptive strike" that industry sources said could be the prelude to the culling of up to half a million more animals as the disease raged across Britain and the world.

Britain, with 234 reported cases, and more than 200,000 other animals to be culled or already slaughtered, was at the heart of the nightmare outbreak that began two months ago.

Although not harmful to humans, foot-and-mouth is a highly contagious viral disease that causes blisters and fever in cloven-hoofed animals. The disease can be economically devastating for farmers already reeling from the aftermath of the mad cow disease.

Foot-and-mouth has already spread to France, threatening other European countries, and as far as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina.

Some 90 countries around the world, including the United States and Australia, have banned the import of live animals and meat and dairy products from Europe after the discovery this week of the infection in France that forced the slaughter of 114 cows in Mayenne.

"I am certain that the French government are taking the correct actions to control the disease just as we are doing," Brown said.

Holland, Switzerland, Hungary and Sweden have implemented bans of varying degrees on the importation of cloven-hooved animals susceptible to foot-and-mouth as well as dairy and meat products.

The infection continued to spread, however.

Nine sheep were destroyed in Italy at a farm southeast of Rome after they showed possible signs of the disease, officials said. The UAE reported eight cases, which it said was "limited and contained."

Saudi Arabia reported two cases of the disease in the northwest part of the country Wednesday, a government statement said. It set up a high-level committee to stop the potential spread of the disease.

On Thursday, the official Saudi Press Agency said Riyadh had temporarily banned the import of all kinds and products of chilled, frozen and canned meat, either sheep or cows, from Iran, India and Taiwan -- named in a recent World Health Organization report as possibly having foot-and-mouth disease.

Elsewhere, South Korea established a temporary ban on importing cloven-footed animals and related products from the European Union. Japan as well as the United States, Canada and Australia have banned livestock imports from France.

At the same time, the EU banned all imports of meat from Argentina following what was described as a "significant outbreak" there. One outbreak was reported in the province of Buenos Aires and other cases were suspected.

Japan began screening passengers arriving in direct flights from Britain. They were made to walk over sterile mats as part of steps to curb the spread of foot-and-mouth, officials said. Passengers from France who had visited livestock farms were being asked to voluntarily walk over the mats, the Kyodo news agency reported.

In Belgium, police discovered Wednesday two violations of the import prohibition on fresh meat and dairy products near the border.

Authorities feared that the disease could spread as potentially infected sheep and goats from France were taken to the Netherlands through Belgium. The country's farmers' union called on the government to prepare an emergency plan in the event of an outbreak.

Copyright 2001 by United Press International.