OPPONENTS of genetically modified crops reacted with fury yesterday to leaked Cabinet minutes indicating that ministers have decided to approve their cultivation.

An announcement on the commercial planting of GM maize could come as early as next week.

Michael Meacher, the former Environment Minister, said that there was no “moral, scientific or political authority” for the move and green campaigners said the leaked minutes showed that big business had triumphed over public opinion.

The minutes show Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, arguing that there was “no scientific case for an outright ban on cultivation of GM crops”. The public, she said, wanted “more information and a strong regulatory regime”, not a ban.

She said that GM crops should be considered on a case-by-case basis. In discussion, the minutes record, the point was made that while a ban “was the easy way out, it was an irrational way for the Government to proceed, particularly given the symbolic importance of the decision for the Government’s science policy and the UK science base”.

Mr Meacher was unconvinced. “Why is the Government going ahead?” he asked. “It is not because of the science, it is because of the Bush Administration applying pressure and because of big companies like Monsanto who want to make a big profit out of cornering the world food supply. It has nothing to do with feeding the world.”

Ben Ayliffe, of Greenpeace, said: “Going ahead with GM would be a disaster for farming and the countryside. There are no rules in place to stop GM contaminating organic and non-GM crops.”

Tony Juniper, of Friends of the Earth, said: “The views of the British public count for nothing when it comes to looking after the interests of Tony Blair’s business friends.”

The Royal Society welcomed the move. A spokesman said: “The results of the farm-scale trials, which were published in a Royal Society journal last October, show that the weed management of the GM maize variety clearly had a less damaging effect on farmland wildlife than current conventional practice.”

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