While the first generation of biotech crops focused on boosting yields, varieties now being developed promise to improve the nutritional content of food and even help fight human diseases, the officials said.

"One of the fundamental problems is just the lack of leadership over there," Tim Galvin, a top US Agriculture Department official, told a House Agriculture Committee panel.

In the wake of "mad cow" beef controversy of a few years ago, many European Union consumers greatly distrust what their governments say about food safety Galvin said. That has made EU politicians reluctant to press the case for genetically modified crops, even though there is no evidence the crops pose any risk, he further added.

Jim Murphy, assistant US trade representative for Agricultural Trade, attributedEuropean timidity regarding biotech crops to Old World conservatism. "They are culturally risk-averse to trying new things," he said, adding that he jokes to his European friends that "the definition of an American is a risk-taking European."

Those explanations drew a skeptical response from Thomas Ewing, an Illinois Republican who chaired the sub-committee hearing on biotech issues. Ewing's home state is the second largest US corn and soybean producer.

"I think they are dumb like a fox," Ewing said, arguing that EU foot-dragging is disguised trade protectionism. "They don't want us in there. They don't want the competition."

Last year, the US shipped less than 3 million bushels of corn to Spain and Portugal, down from 70 million in the 1996/97 marketing year, because of EU delays in approving genetically modified varieties grown in the country.

And "unless the EU commits to timely review, our problems with corn exports will continue," Roger Pine, president of the National Corn Growers Association,said. "There are now five corn approvals pending in the EU."

In US last year, 25 per cent of the corn crop and 38 per cent of the soybean crop was grown from genetically modified seed varieties.

Only about 2.5 per cent of the 1998 corn crop was grown from varieties not yet approved in the EU. But since modified varieties are mixed freely with traditional corn, the approval delay threatens all US corn sales to the EU.

The US cannot certify that a particular cargo is free of biotech corn, Galvin said. To prevent a repetition of last year's lost sales, the country hopes to assure the EU that it has little chance of importing any varieties it has not yet approved. Planters have pledged to keep the corn out of export channels, he said.

That may be the best chance for getting US corn into Europe, because the EU approval process for genetically modified food has essentially "ceased to function" amid all the controversy surrounding decisions. Proposals to fix the system could take two years or more to beadopted, said sources.

Earl Pomeroy, North Dakota Democrat, said that it would be wise to recognise a deep "cultural resistance" within Europe to biotechnology, even if that is unfounded.

The US could do so eventually if the marketplace were to pay a premium for segregated corn. But it would be unfair to impose the huge cost of building separate storage and handling facilities on the grain industry, he said.

Meanwhile, the US plantings of genetically-modified soybeans "could reach 40 million acres" in 1999, an industry official said. That would be over half of expected total plantings this year, Mike Yost, president of the American Soybean Association told a House Agriculture Committee panel during a hearing on biotech issues.

Last year, the farmers planted an estimated 27 million acres of genetically-modified soybeans, or 38 per cent of total plantings. Biotech corn acres totaled 19.6 million acres in 1998, or 25 per cent of the plantings. Modified cotton varieties were planted on 5.8 million acresin 1998, or 45 per cent of the total area.

Jay Hardwick, a farmer representing the National Cotton Council, said that nearly 60 per cent of the cotton acreage will be planted with biotech varieties in 1999.

Around the world, farmers planted approximately 69.5 million acres of genetically-modified crops in 1998, including 58 million in the US.

About 5.3 million acres of genetically-modified canola and 60,000 acres of genetically-modified potatoes were planted in the US and Canada last year.