Members of an international commission on food standards are expected to clash on safety standards for genetically modified foods during a four-day meeting beginning today in Chiba Prefecture, government sources said Monday.

The meeting will be the first of the Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Codex Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, a body under the 165-member Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The sources said that nations such as Denmark will insist on a "precautionary principle" banning the commercialization of GM foods unless their safety is guaranteed. The United States, however, will object to singling out such foods and screening them, the sources said.

The sources said Denmark and some other European countries will stress the need to label GM foods to protect consumers.

The U.S., the world's largest exporter of GM products, will likely point out that food ingredients are altered not only by genetic modification but also by growers' selection of desirable crops. The U.S. will oppose special safety checks only for GM crops, they said.

South Africa will suggest labeling of GM foods should be a major issue on the meeting's agenda, while New Zealand will try to exclude this issue from discussions, the sources said.

Japan will attest to the efficiency of biotechnology but seek careful application of it to secure product safety and win public confidence, according to the sources.

Tokyo will suggest promoting disclosure of information related to the safety of GM foods and creating an international database on allergens and genes.

The ad hoc task force, whose creation was decided upon during the commission's plenary session in Rome in July, aims to draw up scientific safety standards for GM foodstuffs by 2003. It will meet every year with the participation of nongovernmental organizations as observers.

The Rome-based commission was jointly established by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization in 1962. Its food standards are treated by the World Trade Organization as de facto international criteria which WTO members are required to follow in principle.