The proposed rules came after three public hearings and more than 50,000 written comments. The agency will accept comments on the rules for another 75 days, before deciding whether to adopt or revise them. Informed sources say, since 1992, around 50 crops have been produced using gene-splicing techniques, that add pest resistance traits to corn or cotton.

A Monsanto press release issued here on Monday says, according to Mr Joe Levitt, director of the FDA's office of food safety, his agency's scientists, backed by a recent federal court ruling, believe biotech crops are not substantially different from crops developed through traditional breeding. ``Our job is to create a (review) process to make sure of this on a case-by-case basis'', Mr Levitt said, adding that under the new rules, ``FDA would make a judgement, that the new product derived through biotechnology is as safe as its conventionally grown counterpart''.

Monsanto explains that there are two parts to the FDA proposal. First, it would require companies to show FDA regulators safety data, atleast 120 days before they bring a new bio-engineered food to the market. However, biotech developers have been showing their food safety tests to the FDA, since these crops started coming on the market. Secondly the agency laid out guidelines for voluntary labelling, that spell out which words can and can't be used to describe biotech crops, Mr Levitt said and added that the agency has proposed that any label specify whether the food ``is derived through biotechnology''.

The FDA's position, it is claimed, has been that mandatory labelling is unnecessary, once the agency has determined that a bio-engineered food is safe.

Dr Jane E Henney, the FDA commissioner, has said that, ``These initiatives will assure that all food products developed using the tools of modern biotechnology are known to FDA, so that it can continue to examine these products before they reach the market. These measures will permit the review process to be more transparent to the public one of the primary issues voiced during FDA's public hearings on this issue''.