26/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - In a press statement the Italian organisation, Coldiretti, explained that the decisions taken by the European Commission on Tuesday with regard to imports from the USA (EUROPE yesterday p 8) and the embargo, were precautionary measures that were "timely and necessary faced with the risk of the bird flu disease". However, Coldiretti added that the embargo should be completed by an "obligatory labelling system indicating the origin of all animals". Coldiretti explained that this labelling should be "transparent from the land to the table" and had become compulsory for eggs in the EU but was regrettably still not compulsory for poultry, rabbit and pork. The Italian organisation proposed, with the backing of a million signatories, a popular initiative law in Italy which would include compulsory labelling on the origin of food products.