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EU pledges $420m for diary famers

Luxembourg - The European Union's farm chief promised 280 million ($420m) for a special milk fund on Monday to ease the plight of dairy farmers facing the fallout of the financial crisis.

EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said she was forced "to empty my pockets" to meet the demands of 21 of 27 member states seeking 300 million ($450m) and the tens of thousands of farmers who have protested over the past few months.

Outside of the EU farm ministers meeting in the center of Luxembourg early on Monday, hundreds of farmers started converging for the third major demonstration in as many weeks.

Uproar across Europe has increased for weeks as the financial crisis undermined prices and pushed ever more farmers toward bankruptcy.

Monday's milk protests follow demonstrations of grain farmers in Paris last week, when farmers dumped burning tires and hay on the Champs Elysees, one of Europe's foremost shopping streets.

On Monday, Fischer Boel said the promise of extra funds should at least end the protests of the dairy farmers.

French Farm Minister Bruno Le Maire, who had been pushing for the 300 million, said he does "not feel attached to the last euro, but there has to be a strong financial message". Together with his German counterpart Ilse Aigner, Le Maire had been leading the demands for more money, in the face of holdouts like Britain and the Netherlands.

EU officials say prices are on the upswing again, but farmers say they still get prices far below production costs.

Beyond fresh funds, the 21 nations also want strong rules to contain the free market and make sure that farmers can count on dependable income not linked to the vageries of world prices.

- AP

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