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Wellington, Oct 17 - Labour ministers and the Greens met late into last night trying to reach agreement on the future of genetic engineering (GE) in New Zealand.

The meeting was just two weeks before the Government's October 31 deadline to work through the recommendations of a royal commission on GE.

The $6.2 million commission backed a strong government role in the technology, recommending the first application for release of a GE crop be decided by the environment minister as a political decision, rather than regulators. But the Greens want a GE-free New Zealand and are hard at work trying to convince the Government of the benefits of that. Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said she met Prime Minister Helen Clark, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs and Research Science and Technology Minister Mark Gosche on the issue last night. ``This wasn't actually the Government, it was the Labour ministers, and they don't yet have agreement between themselves,'' Ms Fitzsimons told NZPA. ``We restated our position and we explored various options and we gave our view on those various options.'' She would not say what those options were, saying the negotiations were confidential.

GENETIC-COMMISSION-2-WELLINGTON Ms Fitzsimons was adamant the Greens were not simply seeking an extension of the GE moratorium; the party wanted a GE-free New Zealand, not a ``pathetic maybe we will maybe we won't'' half-way move which allowed some trials, as was the case under the moratorium. ``We are asking for a decision that New Zealand should market itself as a GE-free country and get all the economic benefits that go with that.'' The existing moratorium covered only releases and some field trials but allowed such things as a trial at AgResearch in Waikato whereby human genes were put into cows as part of multiple sclerosis research. The Greens would not hold the Government to ransom over the issue but could not give overall support to a government which took New Zealand into a GE future. ``We've made it very clear that we never trade between issues,'' Ms Fitzsimons said. ``We vote for good legislation and we vote against bad legislation in accordance with our policy.''

GENETIC-COMMISSION-3-WELLINGTON National environment spokesman Nick Smith offered the Government its support in adopting the commission's ``proceed with caution'' approach. ``New Zealand risks shutting out new medicines and technologies that can improve our health, economy and environment,'' he said in a statement. ``The Greens' absolute opposition to any form of genetic technology will drive talented New Zealand scientists offshore and rob New Zealand of the opportunities of a knowledge economy.'' National leader Bill English had written to Miss Clark offering his party's support. ACT MP Stephen Franks said the Government should have announced within a week of receiving the commission that it accepted and would implement its recommendations. ``The costs of the dithering over Air New Zealand will be nothing compared to the costs of losing the political initiative on genetic modification.''

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