By Victoria Knight, Dow Jones Newswires via Checkbiotech

German chemical and pharmaceuticals giant Bayer AG has withdrawn an application to grow a genetically modified type of rapeseed in the European Union, the latest in a string of setbacks for biotechnology companies seeking to market their products in the EU's 25 member countries.

Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, said several EU countries, including Germany, had expressed concerns about the safety of the product, used in a variety of cooking oils and prepared foods. With member states lined up against the strain of rapeseed, it would have been an uphill battle to win final approval. A spokeswoman for Bayer CropScience said that though the withdrawal is being made public now, the application for cultivation was canceled last autumn. But she said the company still is seeking EU-wide approval to import the rapeseed from the U.S. and Canada, where the products have been approved for cultivation.

EU governments are expressing increasing unease about biotech crops. Last month, they voted to retain the right to impose national bans on them. The EU ended a six-year moratorium on accepting applications for new genetically modified foods in May 2004, but several EU nations remain reluctant to authorize these products. Europeans are highly skeptical about biotech foods -- in part a legacy of doubts about the safety of such food for consumers and the environment.

The bans are related mainly to the cultivation of the crops. Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Luxembourg have bans against three varieties of biotech maize and two types of rapeseed. The products affected are made by Bayer, Monsanto Co. of the U.S. and Swiss agrochemicals concern Syngenta AG.

The EU's member nations also are at various stages of writing rules about how genetically modified crops can be grown. Many are considering requiring biotech crops grow 50 meters or more apart from traditional strains to prevent pollen spreading to other crops -- a requirement some in the GM industry consider unworkable.

Copyright 2005 Dow Jones & Co.