EU nations disagreed today on rules to prevent cross-contamination of organic and conventional crops by biotech seeds. 

In a first assessment of proposals by the European Commission, no common line emerged among the 15 EU nations on how fields of genetically modified organisms should be farmed alongside other crops.

"The member states should act on a common front," said Italy’s Farm Minister Giovanni Alemanno, who chaired the regular meeting of the 15 agriculture ministers in Brussels. That was not evident today.

"The opinions varied quite considerably," he said of the talks. "It is obvious we need more time to reconcile all the positions."

Italy has been leading the fight for tough EU-wide rules on coexistence, which seek to avoid contamination of regular produce by GMO seeds.

The Commission proposed guidelines in July, as part of a process aimed at lifting a five year moratorium on the GMO crops.

The United States, backed by Canada and Australia, filed suit with the World Trade Organisation against the EU moratorium in June, arguing that the ban is scientifically unfounded and violates global trading rules.

By proposing the rules of coexistence, the EU Commission wants to make sure consumers and farmers can keep GMO seeds out of their produce.

"We must ensure that farmers who want to use conventional and organic farming methods, should be able to do so," said EU Commissioner Franz Fischler.

Under the proposals, different rules would apply to different crops in different regions because farming itself cannot be covered under one EU-rule because of its climatic and geological differences, Fischler said.

"Decisions should be made at the most appropriate and efficient level. It does not make sense to overly equalise everything," Fischler said.

The EU Commission is backing the principle of "farmers joining on a voluntary basis to create zones of GM-free production or bio-regions," Fischler said.

The issue is to be discussed again during next month’s meeting of farm ministers.

The EU introduced a moratorium on new biotech foods in 1998 in response to consumer fears about the possible health and environmental risks. The freeze was intended to give the EU time to study the issue and put in a system of traceability and labelling.

But Washington charges the new rules which require any product containing more than 0.9% of genetically modified material to be clearly labelled would do little to remove barriers to US products, which are generally not labelled.