The EU's executive commission is likely to vote next Wednesday to approve the Swiss firm Syngenta's application to import BT-11 sweetcorn into the 25-nation bloc, sources said.

"It's on the agenda for the commission meeting on May 19," said Beate Gminder, a spokeswoman for EU health and food safety commissioner David Byrne.

There is little doubt about the commission's decision with the EU executive standing in the vanguard of calls for the bloc to allow the cultivation of GM crops, despite little public appetite in Europe for bio-engineered food.

Byrne, who has argued strongly in favour of "healthy products" containing GM organisms, has the overwhelming support of the rest of the commission, according to EU sources.

Only four members of the commission, which since the May 1 entry of 10 more member states into the bloc now numbers 30, have expressed any reservations, they said.

The decision on whether effectively to lift the moratorium, which has been in place since 1999, was passed back to the commission after EU member states failed last month to break a deadlock on the issue.

Under EU rules, after successive failures of governments to reach a deal on GM food, the decision now rests with Brussels.

"The general idea is that after spending four years reinforcing a legislative framework (on GM foods), it's now time that we assumed our responsibilities," an EU source said.

The end to the EU embargo would please the United States, the world's biggest producer of GM foods which has led a group of 12 countries demanding the World Trade Organisation overturn the European ban.

But it will sit uneasily with European consumers, who surveys suggest are strongly against so-called "Frankenfoods", and environmentalists.

Advocates of GM foods argue that modifications to genes promoting, for example, resistance to certain pests, could greatly increase yields and alleviate global hunger.

But opponents say the technology is being pushed forwards by big corporations without sufficient understanding of how GM plants might affect the rest of the environment.

The Greenpeace pressure group, which argues that BT-11 has not been proven safe for human consumption, slammed as "shameful" the inability of EU farm ministers to come to agreement at their meeting on April 26.

Six countries voted last month in favour of BT-11 and thus to lift the EU moratorium -- Britain, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden. Six others were against -- Austria, Denmark, Greece, France, Luxembourg and Portugal -- while Belgium, Germany and Spain abstained.

"There may not have been a qualified majority of ministers to reject BT-11 but there is one in the public opinion, which does not want GMOs on its plate," Greenpeace said.

However, the commission argues that new EU rules on labelling and tracing GM foods that took effect on April 18 have introduced rigorous safeguards that should alleviate public concern.

The rules, which were agreed last year, require food and animal feed to be labelled if they contain at least 0.9 percent of GM ingredients.

Producers and buyers must also store all data about the origin, composition and sale of GM products for a five-year period, which Brussels describes as the toughest GM food regulations anywhere in the world.

TERRA.WIRE