The government will back European Union moves to permit the commercial growing of genetically modified crops, it has been claimed.

The Sunday Times reported that leaked ministerial letters indicated a willingness to support European Commission moves to ban GM-free zones.

The policy would also allow the "co-existence" of GM with conventional crops.

A letter from rural affairs secretary Margaret Beckett indicated she would "broadly support" the commission proposals as "providing a reasonable basis to address the issue".

The proposed EU rules would insist that "no form of agriculture (conventional, organic, GM) should be excluded from the EU".

A second letter from trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt said that UK interests "are best served by giving broad support to the Commission guidelines".

And she added that the government should "bear in mind the potential impact" on relations between the EU and the US.

The current European moratorium on GM crops has caused increasing levels of friction between European leaders and the Bush administration.

Details of GM crop trials in Britain are due to be published next month.

And EU agriculture ministers are due to decide on the future direction of policy in a meeting at the end of the month.