Jeremy Smith, Reuters via Agnet 10 August 04

Europe may, according to this story, again display its deep differences over biotechnology next month when the European Commission battles to find common ground on purity rules for seeds, the last piece in the EU's legal GMO jigsaw.

The story says that Brussels wants to update legislation on seeds so that it can ease the way to approving new genetically modified (GMO) crops for planting, bbut this has proved so controversial that even the EU executive, usually united on GMO policy, cannot agree.

A draft law has bounced between various Commission units for more than a year. The group of 25 commissioners will discuss GMO seeds at a meeting on September 8 in a last bid to agree policy before the current executive's mandate expires on October 31.

Eric Gall, GMO advisor at environment group Greenpeace, was quoted as saying, "This proposal has been around for quite some time. They seem to want to adopt it before the Commission leaves (office). It will be the five commissioners in charge...and I don't know how they are going to come to an agreement. They are in such a deadlock within the Commission."

The story says that a draft law circulating in May listed six crops -- rapeseed, maize, sugar and fodder beet, potatoes and cotton -- with proposed GMO content thresholds from 0.3 to 0.5 percent.

Batches of conventional seed containing genetically modified material below those thresholds would not have to be labelled.