The UK's push for reformof the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy was boosted yesterday with new research showing the extent to which the sub-sidy regime increases the inequalities between rich and poor regions.

The two-year study, one of the most comprehensive undertaken of the CAP, shows that even after the recent CAP reforms, rich regions in Germany, theUK, France and the Netherlands will take a greater slice of the €90bn (£61bn) farming subsidies than poorer regions in southern and eastern Europe, accentuating the difference between rich and poor rural regions.