It would have been the EU's first attempt to approve a "live" GMO for planting since 1998, before the bloc began its six-year ban on allowing imports of new GMOs.

That ban, or moratorium, was lifted last year by a default legal process that entered into effect when EU states were unable to break their longstanding deadlock over biotech foods.

"The June 6 meeting is off, it's been postponed. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason," one Commission official said, adding that the move appeared to be more administrative than political.

On the draft agenda for the June 6 meeting was a discussion on whether to authorise a GMO maize known as 1507, made jointly by Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a subsidiary of DuPont Co., and Dow AgroSciences unit Mycogen seeds.

It is engineered to resist the corn-borer insect, among other pests, and a widely used type of herbicide.

A handful of GMO crops, mainly maize types, were authorised for growing across the EU shortly before the moratorium began. No new crop has been allowed for planting since then.