Home Office Minister Lord Williams said the three research houses in Britain that had conducted such tests voluntarily agreed to stop, and that no new licences for such tests would be granted by the Labour government.

This means between 200 and 300 rabbits, guinea pigs and rats a year will be spared the experiments now conducted to see whether they are adversely affected by finished cosmetic products.

But they are only a fraction of the 2,800 animals that are subjected to tests annually in Britain for the individual ingredients that go into cosmetics.

Williams said the ingredients tests are not being stopped right away because the bulk of the ingredients, such as anti-oxidants and preservatives, are also used for medical or pharmaceutical purposes.

However, he said the government would seek to identify those ingredients primarily used for "vanity products" and work towards a ban on testing them on animals.

"Our policy unambiguously is that the use of animals is only to be adopted in justifiable circumstances, and has always got to be in the context of the due reverence for the fact that we are using living creatures," Williams told a news conference.

"Cosmetic product testing is what is being stopped. We want to go forward to see how far we can stop (cosmetic) ingredient testing," he said.

The Body Shop, a cosmetics company that has long campaigned against animal testing, said the announcement placed Britain at the forefront of European nations on the animal testing issue.

"It's the first time a government has banned any category of animal testing," said Steve McIvor, company spokesman.

Technically the move is not a legal ban.

Williams said there was no room in the government's legislative programme in the next 18 months for a legislated ban, although he did not rule out such a proposal in the long term.

Williams said he was legally prevented from naming the companies that agreed to the testing ban.

The vast bulk of animals that undergo experiments, 2.7 million last year, are used for medical and pharmaceutical research.

Williams said the government's Animal Procedures Committee would also push for a ban on the use of Great Apes, such as chimpanzees, in any kind of testing -- although they have not been used in the past -- and a ban on alcohol and tobacco product development and testing on animals.

The government's decision was praised by the chairman of the parliamentary animal welfare group, Roger Gale, who is a member of the opposition Conservative party.

"We still have a long way to go, on a Europe-wide basis, to bring about all the changes that are needed but these are significant steps forward," Gale said.

- Susan Cornwell, Reuters