Industry leaders in the Irish agri-food sector are in unanimous agreement on the need to resist proposed cuts to the EU’s agriculture budget.

THE dairy market continues to show resistance, and price returns to producers in Ireland are now at levels that threaten the very viability of many farm enterprises, Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith warned yesterday.

A special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao today told US President George Bush that China wants a strong UN response to North Korea’s claimed nuclear test, a White House spokesman said.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern disclosed yesterday that European Commission negotiators have been pulled back from exceeding the agriculture mandate they had been given by member states for the world trade talks.

Foreign Secretary Robin Cook has pledged Britain’s ‘‘full support’’ for the government of Macedonia in its struggle with ethnic Albanian separatists who have begun an armed insurrection in the north of the country.