Following three years of test crops, government ministers decided eight days ago to allow the first commercial crop of GM maize to be grown, The Guardian newspaper and BBC television's "Newsnight" said.

A public announcement was expected next week, the two news outlets said, citing minutes of a cabinet meeting which involved Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, among others.

"The public was unlikely to be receptive," it was reportedly noted in the minutes, which are usually kept confidential.

Several public opinion surveys have found that an overwhelming majority of British consumers oppose genetic modification. Many food outlets having responded to public pressure by unilaterally banning GM ingredients.

Nonetheless, ministers felt that a ban would be "the easy way out" and "an irrational way for the government to proceed" given its public backing for science in Britain, the Guardian quoted the minutes as saying.

"Opposition might eventually be worn down by solid, authoritative scientific argument," ministers noted hopefully, according to the newspaper.

In January, a scientific body commissioned by the British government to look into the issue gave a qualified green light to GM maize, while going against other crops.

The Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment analysed results of GM trials of maize, beet and spring-sown oil seed rape at some 60 sites across Britain over the last three years.

Friends of the Earth international vice chairman Tony Juniper, reacting to the Guardian and BBC reports, said: "These leaked documents reveal the government's real agenda on GM."

"The views of the British public count for nothing when it comes to looking after the interests of Tony Blair's business friends," he said.

"It does not matter to this government that we do not have the laws in place to protect farmers and food producers from GM contamination. It does not matter that there no market for GM in the United Kingdom."

"They are ignoring their own findings, and instead intend to wage a propaganda war to persuade the electorate in Britain and in Europe that GM is what they want."

Greenpeace campaigner Ben Ayliffe said: "Going ahead with GM would be a disaster for farming and the countryside."

"There are no rules in place to stop GM contaminating organic and non-GM crops," he said. "As things stand, if something goes wrong the GM companies will get off scot-free while the taxpayer foots the bill."

Ayliffe added: "The public has said no, the science has said no, even his own economists have said no, but Tony Blair is desperate to spin us into accepting GM."

TERRA.WIRE