The Welsh Assembly has, according to this story, been accused by one of its chairmen of "lacking integrity". Glyn Davies, who chairs the agriculture and rural affairs committee, was referring to the Assembly policy on geneticallymodified foods and the Welsh bid to be "different" from the English. Mr Davies spoke out when the committee was presented with draft regulations governing the release of GM organisms into the environment.

The Assembly has been involved in a long battle to exclude GM crops from Wales; the first stage was to ensure that test-cropping did not take part in the country as a step towards banning commercial growing. Although European Union rules demand that similar regulations are imposed throughout Wales, the Assembly has been quietly trying to find a way around them to ensure
that Wales is "GM-free".

Mr Davies spoke out after last week's agriculture committee. He said, "The committee was presented with a ministerial view that the regulations we were being presented with had been changed to satisfy the different circumstances of Wales."

"Into the Welsh regulations we were discussing had been added a reference to the `pre-cautionary principle' always applying in Wales. But these words make not the slightest difference; they had been put in to give the impression that Wales was different from England, when there is no difference at all." Mr Davies said he was concerned about the "lack of integrity" in the Assembly's approach.