Earlier this week, EU farm ministers failed to break their deadlock on whether to approve a different gene maize, handing the European Commission the power to authorise imports - a simple rubberstamp exercise likely in late May or early June that will effectively end the bloc's five-year blockade on new GMO approvals.

Friday's vote was split with eight in favour, five against and two abstaining: not enough to secure an approval.

"The decision to authorise the genetically modified maize NK603 for import into Europe will pass onto the Council (of EU ministers)," said Reijo Kemppinen, chief spokesman at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm.

"The maize and all products containing the maize, if authorised, would be clearly labelled as containing GM maize," he told a daily news briefing. A similar vote by environment experts in February rejected use of NK603 in animal feed.

EU ministers will now take over the dossier for a period of three months. If they cannot agree by the end of this time, the Commission has the right to adopt its proposal and authorise imports.

The meeting of EU agriculture ministers on Monday ended in deadlock over whether to approve another biotech maize called Bt-11, made by Swiss agrochemicals company Syngenta and intended for eating straight from the can.

The Commission is now expected to rubberstamp an approval for Bt-11, in late May or early June, and end the moratorium.

The United States, backed by Canada and Argentina, has challenged the EU's GMO ban at the World Trade Organisation, saying the EU is acting illegally. Farmers in the United States say the ban costs them millions of dollars a year in lost sales.

LIVE PLANTINGS After the EU's moratorium is formally lifted in the next few weeks, the next battleground will be getting agreement for live GMOs to be imported for planting - the acid test, diplomats say, of whether Europe's biotech blockade is really over.

Apart from being highly controversial, there are a number of legislative problems in this area. The main stumbling block is a long-running row over updating the EU's thresholds for maximum permitted GMO presence in conventional and organic seeds.

Neither the NK603 or Bt-11 applications are for cultivation. For NK603, Monsanto's requested use is for industrial processing. EU experts had to assess the application twice, for use in animal feed and for human consumption in processed foods.

Green groups hailed the EU experts' failure to back NK603.

"Once again there is no political or scientific consensus on the safety of genetically modified foods," said Adrian Bebb at environment group Friends of the Earth.

"Scientists cannot agree over its safety and the public does not want it but still we face endless attempts to force it down our throats," he said in a statement.