BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Federal agriculture officials plan to resume and expand a livestock insurance program that was suspended late last year after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in this country.

The Livestock Risk Protection program is slated to go forward with new sales in October but with some changes aimed at protecting its actuarial soundness in case of a catastrophic event or especially volatile futures markets, Shirley Pugh, a spokeswoman with the Risk Management Agency, said Friday.

They are among the measures the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation board saw fit to have in place so a program could go ahead, Pugh said.

Details of the revamped insurance program are still being worked on, but should be ready in the next few weeks, she said.

"We want this program to go forward," she said, noting interest in it among state agricultural leaders and producers. "We are happy to offer the program with the safety measures in place."

Last December, following the discovery of an animal in Washington state with mad cow disease, the agency said it was temporarily suspending applications for fed and feeder cattle, saying the program - a kind of price insurance pilot offered in select states - was not set up for catastrophic events.

In the hours after the government's announcement of the mad cow case, Pugh said, there was a rush by producers to buy policies.

Other changes to the program approved by the board include limiting total sales for a day - a safeguard meant to help it work in the way intended "without overexposing the federal government and taxpayers until we know it is a viable product," said Tim Hoffmann, director of the product development division with the Risk Management Agency in Kansas City, Mo.

On Thursday, the board, which earlier this year signed off on the changes, said it would expand the program to six more states and expand program offerings in states that have offered policies for fed cattle, feeder cattle, swine or a combination, Pugh said. The new states are Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The other states are: Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

AP-WS-07-30-04 1241EDT