Downing Street has rejected claims that it wants to see an end to farm subsidies within the next decade but conceded that the current system is under review.

The intervention came after the agriculture minister, Lord Whitty, indicated that the government wanted to phase out the system of subsidies for farmers and rural businesses.

Speaking on Monday the prime minister's official spokesman said that scrapping the current system was only "one of the possibilities we have to look at".

The comments come at a critical time for farmers and rural businesses who are counting the cost of the foot and mouth epidemic.

Downing Street said it wanted to begin a wholesale debate about the future of farming in Britain. "What we want to have is a debate about the future of farming," the prime minister's spokesman said. "What we want to have is a sustainable and competitive industry."

The spokesman rejected claims that Lord Whitty had told farmers to expect to see subsidies disappear over the next 10 year.

Lord Whitty, speaking on Monday, sought to play down the row, but warned farmers that they would have to face up to changes in agriculture subsidies and consider the future of the countryside as a whole.

"There have been huge changes in agriculture in the last 50 years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It is not that farmers have not changed but the next change has to bring them closer to consumer concerns and societal concerns."

Lord Whitty argued that subsidies alone would not sustain the countryside.

"What we've got to do is relate any help we give to the countryside to the prosperity of the countryside as a whole and [for it to] be environmentally sustainable. We want a sustainable countryside, economically, socially and environmentally, that is not achieved by production subsidies." he said.