The government has yet to put in place its certification scheme to guarantee the origin of food from unaffected farms, but has said it will be based on a declaration by farmers. That may not be enough to restore confidence among consumers.And, despite an injunction from the EU to remove all dairy products from the market until they can be certified safe, the government has applied the measure only to butter.. THE FRENCH Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, has rebuffed a declaration by Tony Blair and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, calling on all European socialists to follow London and Berlin down the path to low- tax, "third way" enlightenment. Mr Jospin, who claimed not to have been annoyed by the statement, said: "The French left, like France, imitates no-one.

It expresses itself." In fact, there is every indication that Mr Jospin, and the French left generally, were upset by the timing of the declaration, just before the European elections. They are also alarmed, and a little puzzled, by the implication that the new German government feels more comfortable ideologically with Blairism than Jospinism.Mr Jospin's right-of-centre domestic opponents have been making hay with the Blair-Schroder doctrine, claiming that it proves their thesis that French socialism is stuck in the age of tax-and-spend dinosaurs.Members of Mr Jospin's pink-green-red coalition have condemned the British and German leaders. Dominique Voynet, leader of the French Greens, said it was a "stab in the back". Both countries had signed up to a common, socialist platform for the European elections, which made no mention of the "third way", she said They had no right to "betray" Mr Jospin at this time. The Communist leader, Robert Hue, also said the statement was a "serious blow" to the French Prime Minister.The French socialists insist that the scarcely veiled Anglo-German criticism could be put to electoral advantage. In the European Parliament campaign, they have been attacked by the Greens, Communists and ultra-left as being too "liberal": it was useful to be accused of being too far to the left.Mr Jospin was more direct in a campaign speech on Wednesday night "Third way or new centre?" he asked.

"No! I prefer to follow our path, the path of the modern left .. of growth, social progress and modernity.". FORMER PRESIDENT Ronald Reagan's vision of a national missile defence system that could knock enemy missiles out of the sky came a stage closer yesterday after the US military successfully tested a crucial part of the "star wars" technology. The Pentagon said that the Ballistic Missile Defence Organisation and the US army had conducted a "successful intercept with a target by the Theater High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) missile" at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. In other words, it had successfully used a missile to destroy another missile, a technological capability crucial to a missile defence system.The successful test was the 10th of a 13-test series and followed six attempts in which the missile missed its target. This record prompted President Bill Clinton to order the military to review the multi-billion- dollar programme only last month.In the latest test, conducted at dawn yesterday, a Hera test rocket was intercepted in flight by another missile over the White Sands range. If the technology becomes reliable, the US will be able to destroy scud ballistic missiles such as those fired by Iraq during the Gulf War before they reach their intended targets.Earlier this year, President Clinton bowed to pressure from the Republican- controlled Congress to proceed with the missile defence programme, and committed more than $6bn (pounds 3.75bn) to a national missile defence programme. But thetest failures raised questions about the reliability of the system being developed by Lockheed Martin for the US Army.The last failed test, on 29 March, made the company liable to forfeit $15m under the terms of its Pentagon contract.. FOOTPRINTS RECORDING a boyish prank or dare performed more than 25,000 years ago have been discovered by scientists in an underground cavern in southern France.