BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union will venture into the sensitive area of "live" genetically modified (GMO) crops next month, for the first time in eight years, when EU experts debate whether to let farmers grow biotech potatoes.

EU countries have been divided for years over GMO policy and even the idea of how biotech crops should be separated from traditional and organic varieties has proved controversial. So to approve another "live" GMO will be difficult, diplomats say.

The EU's last approval of a GMO product for cultivation was in 1998. Shortly after, the bloc started its de facto moratorium on new biotech authorisations that ended in 2004. Still, no more "live" GMOs have gained EU approval since that time.

That may all change in December, when EU environment experts will discuss an application by German chemicals group BASF to grow a potato -- known as Amylogene -- that is genetically engineered to yield high amounts of starch.

BASF's application only relates to industrial processing, so the potatoes would not be consumed either by humans or animals.

However, the company has submitted a separate application -- no date is yet set for an EU discussion -- where the waste from processing would be incorporated into animal feed. "It's the first proposal that we'll be putting forward for cultivation since before the moratorium," an European Commission official said. The experts' debate is scheduled for Dec. 4.

Greens outraged

Europe has long been split on genetically modified policy and the EU's 25 countries consistently clash over whether to approve new varieties for import. The Commission usually ends up issuing a rubberstamp approval, which it may do under EU law.

Green groups were outraged by the idea of the EU authorising the cultivation of more GMO crops. At present, only a handful may be grown, with approvals dating back to 1998 and earlier.

"For many the people the potato is almost sacred. Allowing genetically modified potatoes to be grown in Europe will be a disaster," said Adrian Bebb, GMO campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe.

"There will always be contamination if GM crops are grown outdoors and sooner or later these GM potatoes will end up in the food chain," he said.

Later in December, EU environment ministers are expected to discuss Commission proposals ordering both Austria and Hungary to lift their bans on certain GMO products after an expert committee failed to reach a consensus agreement in September.

They are also likely to debate an application for EU imports of a carnation whose colour has been genetically modified to produce blue pigment and also carry a herbicide-resistant gene.

Ironically, carnations were the EU's last two GMO plant authorisations before the unofficial moratorium began. The application, lodged by Florigene -- one of Australia's first biotech companies -- does not include cultivation."