"It was a non-opinion," an official at the European Commission told Reuters, indicating failure to reach a decision.

Eight countries voted in favour -- Belgium, Ireland, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Voting against were Austria, France, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovakia.

The rest of the EU-25 abstained, except for Malta, Greece and Lithuania who were not represented at the meeting.

Under the EU's weighted voting system there were insufficient votes for the proposal to pass.

Monsanto applied for EU approval under a law covering food products and ingredients derived from GMOs such as flour, starch or oil from a GMO maize, paste or ketchup from a GMO tomato. Only products deemed safe for human consumption may be marketed.

The lack of a decision on approving imports of the maize means the matter passes to ministers, who will have three months to debate the proposal, presented by the Commission -- the European Union's executive arm.

If they cannot agree, the Commission may adopt its proposal.

Since November 2003, the Commission has asked EU states 10 times to vote on authorising a GMO food or feed product. In nine cases there was no agreement and in one the deadlock around the table resulted in the vote being postponed.