For the most part, proven reserves are stated by the oil companies, the producer states and the consumer states.

The report, which covers the seven largest producer states, said 1.6 million cattle were moved from pastures to feedlots last month.

Grubbing up, then, just as new producer states are planting, would mean handing over large new slices of the market to them.

Most producer states accept the need for premium modulation as an important tool in improving quality and helping their growers to get closer to the market.

Mr. Levitt predicted that the tally of feedlot cattle in the 13 largest producer states would rise 9 percent, to 10.9 million head, from the level a year ago.

This is in no way a case of the good guys being in the ACP and European producer states, and the baddies in Latin America.

However, I cannot accept Amendments Nos 13, 34 or 38, as the additional amount offered to the northern producer states is in accordance with the situation of their producers and thus should also be maintained.

All Member States accept the need for reform and the aim of improving tobacco quality but there is a divergence of views between producer states and non-producer states over the ways and means of proceeding.

The Department of Agriculture also released a cattle supply report Friday - the quarterly estimate of cattle on feedlots in the 13 largest producer states - which showed a larger-than-expected number of cattle placed on feedlots during the first quarter.

This outlook was based on anticipation that today's cattle-on-feed report from the Agriculture Department, a monthly tally of the cattle being fattened for slaughter in the seven largest producer states, will show about a 15 percent decline in May feeding-lot placements, compared with last year.

As editor of Middle East Monitor in the 1990s, he reported on the emergence of Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq, the changing fortunes of the Arab World, Iran in an era characterised by international sanctions, and the slow recovery of trust between OPEC producer states and industrialised consuming nations.