When reading LeMonde I stumbled upon this sentence "le préfet de Haute-Loire ne souhaite plus communiquer sur la sécurité routière, fût-ce pour donner des chiffres."
I found that ne fût-ce que means only if but I don't understand why the 'ne' is omitted in this case and how (and whether) it changes meaning.
My attempt at a translation: the Haute-Loire prefect doesn't wish to communicate about the matter of road security (apart from giving some figures?)