LONDON (Reuters)
- More than 500 British soldiers, sailors and airmen have been
prevented from joining a NATO exercise in Norway for fear of spreading
Britain's foot-and-mouth outbreak, officials said on Wednesday.
However, about
1,000 Royal Marines and other British military personnel who had
been in Norway since January -- before the foot-and-mouth outbreak
began -- were taking part in the exercise, a Defence Ministry
spokeswoman told Reuters.
"Soldiers
who went out to Norway in January are still taking part in the
exercise, but those who went out after February 1 will be confined
to barracks," the spokeswoman said.
"We are
working together with the Norwegian government. The restrictions
have been imposed as a way of trying to minimise any possible
spread of the disease," she said.
About 350
British military personnel were prevented from travelling to Norway
for NATO's Exercise Joint Winter 2001. A further 200 already in
Norway had been stopped from taking part in the exercise.
The NATO exercise
involves troops from eight countries, including Germany, France
and the United States.
Personnel
on board the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible have been
prevented from landing in Norway, but are taking part in the exercise
from on board the ship which is acting as a command post.
More than
70 cases of the highly contagious foot-and-mouth virus, which
causes severe weight loss in livestock but is more or less harmless
to humans, have been confirmed at sites across Britain over the
past two weeks.
On Tuesday,
the European Union imposed tough new restrictions on livestock
trading, limiting cross-border movements and suspending all livestock
markets in a bid to keep Britain's outbreak from spreading to
the continent.
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