Prime Minister Gordon Brown moved to reassure the country over the foot-and-mouth outbreak as he declared: "Britain is open for business."
He said everything is being done to get Britain back to normal outside the restricted zones and praised the rural community for its "patience and forbearance".
Mr Brown also announced new measures to firm up the rural economy, including extra compensation for farmers affected by the disease.
Mr Brown said farmers would be compensated for clean up costs on top of normal compensation and payments would be made to farmers in the affected areas "in the next few days".
Speaking from Downing Street, he said: "We have restricted the disease to a limited area of this country. The risk of it spreading out of these areas is low if not negligible."
But he said the national ban on the movement of animals would remain in place until he was "absolutely sure" the disease had been contained and controlled.
He went on: "That's why I'm grateful to the farming community and all people in rural areas for their patience, forbearance, co-operation and understanding in what is an anxious time for the farming community. I believe that we should re-emphasise the benefits of tourism in rural areas.
"We want to make sure everything possible is being done not only to get back to normal as quickly as possible but to advance the benefits of the rural economy in this country."
Mr Brown said it was "premature" to attribute blame over the source of the outbreak. He confirmed the Government is stockpiling foot and mouth vaccine in case vaccination becomes necessary in the future.
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"What's important for the chief vetinary officer and myself is of course that we contain and control the disease and all our efforts over the past week, since this was first discovered, has been to contain and control the disease."
