BERLIN - Germany was hopeful on Wednesday that the "worst" of a killer bacteria outbreak was over as national and European Union health and consumer affairs officials met for urgent talks on the crisis.

The number of new infections from a highly virulent strain of E. coli bacteria that has left at least 25 people dead and more than 2,600 ill was falling, German Health Minister Daniel Bahr said after the meeting.

"We cannot give the all-clear but based on the evaluation of the data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), there is reason for justified optimism that we have the worst behind us at the national level," he told reporters.

"For a few days, the number of new infections has continued to drop."

He added that Germany, which has seen all but one of the deaths from the lethal strain, would maintain its warning against eating raw tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers and various sprouts until it finds the mysterious outbreak's cause.

Bahr spoke after emergency talks in Berlin with federal Consumer Affairs and Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner, counterparts from all of Germany's 16 states, public health institute representatives and EU health commissioner John Dalli.

The RKI said it was not certain whether the drop in new cases was linked to consumers avoiding the blacklisted vegetables.

In light of the scare, the EU Farm Commissioner Dacian Ciolos on Wednesday increased his offer of compensation for the E. coli outbreak to 210 million euros ($306 million) from 150 million euros.

Amid criticism from European partners over Germany's public health warnings - including a false alarm over Spanish imported cucumbers - Dalli called the country's crisis management "impressive".

But he said that as long as people were still dying, German authorities and their European partners had to zero in on its cause and called for better coordination between German and foreign experts.

"There is a clear sense of urgency. We need to be able to tell consumers that the food they eat and drink is safe," he said.

Despite widespread testing of foodstuffs, restaurants and farms, authorities have been unable to trace the origin of the outbreak.

Lower Saxony Agriculture Minister Gert Lindemann said experts had not found traces of the bacteria strain at an organic sprout farm on which suspicion had recently fallen, but he did not rule it out as the source of the contamination.

AFP-AP