Synopsis (short abstract)Following the decision of the Twenty-eighth Session of the FAO Conference to broaden the mandate of the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources in a stepby- step manner, beginning with Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR), the Conference requested the Director-General to establish an Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Animal Genetic Resources (the Ad Hoc Group) to prepare the future work of the Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Animal Genetic Resources (ITWG-AnGR) of the Commission on Genetic Resour ces for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA). The Ad Hoc Group was to report to the Director-General, who would bring its recommendations, as appropriate, to the attention of the Fourteenth Session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG) (Rome, 7-11 April 1997) and subsequently to the CGRFA at its Seventh Session (15-23 May 1997). At the request of the Conference, the One-hundred-and-tenth Session of Council prepared interim terms of reference and statutes for the CGRFA which provide for the establishm ent and set out the purposes of the Intergovernmental Technical Sectoral Working Groups (Resolution CL 1/110). The Ad Hoc Group discussed and agreed Terms of Reference in the light of C 95/REP, paragraph 67. The Ad Hoc Group met in Rome, 7-9 January 1997, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Adel Aboul-Naga. Its members are given in Appendix 1.