German health officials have confirmed that locally grown bean sprouts are the source of the deadly E.coli outbreak.
Officials initially blamed the outbreak - which has killed 29 people and made thousands ill - on imported cucumbers.
They now say that even though no tests of bean sprouts from a farm in Lower Saxony have been positive, an investigation of the outbreak's pattern has produced enough evidence to draw the conclusion that they were responsible.
About 3000 people have been taken ill with the previously unknown strain of the E.coli bacterium.
The head of Germany's centre for disease control, Reinhard Burger, says the warning against eating cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce is now lifted but stays in place for sprouts.
In another development, Russia has agreed to lift its ban on imports of fresh vegetables from the European Union in return for guarantees about safety.
The Russian ban had compounded a crisis for European Union vegetable-growers, with Spanish cucumber producers wrongly blamed for the contamination.
