welfare of calves, condemning the use of veal crates and urging that the calves be given a balanced diet.

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler said in a statement the aim of the report was to ease public concern while ensuring that veal production will continue to be profitable for producers.

"Failure to address public concern will lead inevitably to a decline in consumption with implications for producers' income which will be very much greater than any costs that may arise from implementation of these proposals,'' he said.

The report said calves suffer stress when kept in individual pens without room to lie down comfortably and with no contact with other calves.

It also warned that calves which lack nutrients such as iron and are not given adequate roughage such as hay can suffer health problems.

Calves, confined in veal crates, are often fed only powdered milk so as to produce premium pale pink meat.

*** Proving there's more to pasta than the joy of eating it, some 600 pasta makers from 40 countries, including the United States, assembled last Thursday for their first world congress.

Its allure as a versatile and healthy dish has spread far from its Italian roots, proving popular in the rest of Europe, South America and the United States and gaining a place at tables as far away as Japan.

"There's a complicated world behind the humble plate of spaghetti,'' chairman Paolo Savona told the opening session of the First World Pasta Congress.

A simple mix of durum wheat flour, water and in some cases eggs, pasta has become an important product in the international food market with nearly 10 million tons produced each year.

Italians are still the biggest pasta-eaters, each consuming an average of 61.6 pounds a year. Venezuela follows with an annual per capita consumption of 28 pounds.

The United States and Russia are even at 19.8 pounds.

*** A fire at an agricultural research station in Madison, Wisconsin on Wednesday killed 700 pigs, including some that had been used in a 20-year research project on cholesterol.

The cause of the fire at the swine centre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Arlington Agricultural Research Station wasn't known.

"I think the toughest loss is in the number of years some of the scientists had invested in their research here,'' said David Jensen, research programme manager for the Swine Research and Teaching Center. "These animals were indispensable to their work.'' Jensen was the only person working at the building on Wednesday and was away at lunch when a neighbour reported the fire. No injuries were reported.