MAKUHARI, Chiba Pref. -- Participants at a meeting to establish international standards for genetically modified foods decided Wednesday to move their discussions to working groups.

About 250 representatives from governments, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations in 37 countries took part in the meeting of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology.

The task force is is under the umbrella of the 165-member Codex Alimentarius Commission.

The participants decided to set up two working groups -- one to discuss general guidelines on the evaluation and management of biotechnology-derived foodstuffs, while the other will discuss methods of assessing risks of those foods.

In the general guidelines working group, which Japan will chair, member countries and NGOs will address controversial issues such as assessing the safety of GM foods before introducing them on the market.

Japan will work on a draft proposal for the working group by the first meeting, which is to be held at the end of June or early July. The group is expected to finalize a draft by the end of this year and submit the final report to the next task force meeting in March 2001.

Germany will chair the working group on assessment methodology, which is to be held during the next task force meeting.

The task force aims to submit international guidelines on foods derived from biotechnology, especially GM foods, to the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 2003.

The international guidelines will be binding, in principle, on member countries of the World Trade Organization and thus will have an impact on the farming trade.

Major exporting countries of farm products, such as the United States and Brazil, indirectly expressed hope at the meeting that the task force would work to promote the trade of GM foods.

In contrast, European countries stressed the importance of not allowing the marketing of GM foods until the products' safety is guaranteed.