WASHINGTON - Farmers will sharply boost their plantings of genetically engineered soybeans this year, despite opposition to biotechnology overseas and signs of unease among consumers, the U.S. government said Friday.

About 63 percent of this year's soybean crop, or about 48 million acres (19 million hectares), is expected to be genetically engineered, up from 54 percent in 2000, according to the Agriculture Department's annual survey of farmers' planting intentions. The biotech soy is immune to the Monsanto Co.'s popular Roundup weedkiller.

"Clearly farmers like using Roundup-ready soybeans," said Bill Nelson, a commodity analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons.

Slightly under 10 million acres (4 million hectares) of the cotton that farmers will plant this spring, or 64 percent, is expected to be biotech, compared to 61 percent in 2000, USDA said. Biotech cotton is either resistant to insect pests or herbicides, or both.

"The reports of our death are erroneous," said Lisa Dry, a spokeswoman for the Biotechnology Industry Organization. ``It just shows that farmers see the tremendous benefits of this technology.''

About 24 percent of the 2001 corn crop will be genetically engineered, compared to 25 percent last year, USDA said.

The biotech industry was embarrassed last year when a gene-altered variety of corn, known as StarLink, was found in the food supply without being cleared for human consumption.

StarLink, one of the least used of the various biotech corn varieties, has been withdrawn from the market. But farmers are concerned that stray seeds from last year's StarLink crop may sprout in their fields and have been encouraged to plant biotech soybeans on that acreage. Any wild StarLink plants will die when the genetically modified soybeans is treated with herbicide.

Although there is strong resistance to biotech food in Europe and Japan, most U.S.-grown corn and soybeans are consumed domestically.