Bonn  - A UN conference on risks relating to genetic engineering in agriculture was urged Tuesday to work out international rules for liability.

"It is a matter of credibility" for the international community, to ensure such a deal is reached, said Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Djoghlaf said 3,000 delegates from around 150 nations were working to complete an accord before the five-day conference in the former capital of West Germany ends on Friday.

At the core of negotiations is who is liable for compensation caused by possible damage to the environment resulting from the use of genetically modified plants.

The signatories to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety had set 2008 as the goal for reaching an agreement on internationally binding rules, Djoghlaf said.

Past talks had proved inconclusive because of disagreement between countries who export genetically modified seeds and those who import them, he said, appealing to the parties to end their differences.

The world's leading gene technology companies want a voluntary agreement instead of binding rules on liability and redress relating to the cross-border movement of genetically modified crops such as rice or soya.

There are no legally defined redress and liability elements in the Cartagena Protocol, making it difficult to determine who can claim and who has to pay for economic, health or environmental damage.

Some 147 countries are signatories to the protocol, but the United States, Canada and Argentina - major agricultural producers with substantial genetic engineering operations - have not signed.

Parallel to the conference, environmental and farmers' organizations from 100 countries are holding their own alternative gathering called Planet Diversity.

The meeting called Tuesday on the biosafety delegates to adopt rules that would ensure biotech companies are held accountable for damage caused by their products.

The Bonn conference comes a week before the mammoth convention of the body that implements the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity.

Some 5,000 representatives from 190 countries are participating in the conference, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The agenda includes the destruction of indigenous forests and the plundering of the sea, as well as how to counter the resulting loss of biodiversity. dpa - A UN conference on risks relating to genetic engineering in agriculture was urged Tuesday to work out international rules for liability.

"It is a matter of credibility" for the international community, to ensure such a deal is reached, said Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Djoghlaf said 3,000 delegates from around 150 nations were working to complete an accord before the five-day conference in the former capital of West Germany ends on Friday.

At the core of negotiations is who is liable for compensation caused by possible damage to the environment resulting from the use of genetically modified plants.

The signatories to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety had set 2008 as the goal for reaching an agreement on internationally binding rules, Djoghlaf said.

Past talks had proved inconclusive because of disagreement between countries who export genetically modified seeds and those who import them, he said, appealing to the parties to end their differences.

The world's leading gene technology companies want a voluntary agreement instead of binding rules on liability and redress relating to the cross-border movement of genetically modified crops such as rice or soya.

There are no legally defined redress and liability elements in the Cartagena Protocol, making it difficult to determine who can claim and who has to pay for economic, health or environmental damage.

Some 147 countries are signatories to the protocol, but the United States, Canada and Argentina - major agricultural producers with substantial genetic engineering operations - have not signed.

Parallel to the conference, environmental and farmers' organizations from 100 countries are holding their own alternative gathering called Planet Diversity.

The meeting called Tuesday on the biosafety delegates to adopt rules that would ensure biotech companies are held accountable for damage caused by their products.

The Bonn conference comes a week before the mammoth convention of the body that implements the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity.

Some 5,000 representatives from 190 countries are participating in the conference, among them German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

The agenda includes the destruction of indigenous forests and the plundering of the sea, as well as how to counter the resulting loss of biodiversity. (dpa)