SAO PAULO, Brazil - Brazil's Congressional Commission on Biotechnology will soon present a proposal for a law that could break a lengthy legal deadlock over genetically modified crop sales, a financial paper said on Wednesday. (ref.2037)

The office of Congressman Confucio Moura, the commission spokesman, said details of the bill were still being worked out but Moura expected to present it to Congress on Tuesday. Moura's office could not confirm or deny details of the bill presented in the Valor Economico financial paper.

If approved, the paper said, the bill would give the government's advisory body on biotechnology, the CTNBio, total authority over assigning environmental impact studies for GM crops that biotech companies hope to sell in Brazil, such as Monsanto Co.'s Roundup Ready GM soybeans.

A 5-year environmental study -- ordered by the court in 1998 -- remains the main obstacle blocking the sale of Monsanto GM seeds in Brazil, despite repeated efforts by the company and the government to reverse the court injunction.

"These studies will be made only if the CTNBio determines (they are needed)," Moura told Valor. "In some cases, GM organisms do not offer the least risk."

But consumer groups remain staunch opponents to the sale of GM crops and foods in Brazil.

For almost half a decade the government and Monsanto have warred with environmental activist Greenpeace and local consumer groups IDEC and Procon in the courts over the GM status of Latin America's agricultural workhorse.

Brazil is one of a few large agricultural producers in the Western Hemisphere to still ban the sale of gene-altered foodstuffs from its grocery shelves, as well as GM animal feed and grain.

Moura's office was unclear on how the bill, if approved, would affect the existing injunction on Roundup Ready sales before Monsanto completes the impact study.

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