The multi-million dollar US food-aid under PL-480 programme to India may be severely disrupted if approval is not given to corn-soya blends by authorities in New Delhi, a US embassy official warned.

"India disallowing corn-soya from the US for aid purpose opens up larger questions, the PL-480 programme under which America is giving food aid will be adversely affected," the official said adding since July 2002 no CSB is coming into India and the state governments have to pitch in to meet the deficit.

The PL-480 is a $100 million annual programme serving seven million poor mothers and children through schemes like Integrated Child Development Services.

In the absence of fortified nutritious food like the CSB, state governments were forced to step in to take interim measures and meet the short-term feeding gaps, he said.

Indian authorities have asked that the aid consignments be certified as non-GM, but "we are confident, in light of scientific evidence of CSB being a safe food, the pending appeal will be favourably considered," he added.

Nevertheless Indian government officials feel it is a contentious issue as the US will never certify the CSB as non-GM food since the country co-mingles all foods irrespective of their genetic characterstics, once they have been certified fit for human consumption, he added.

The stand-off also brings to the fore the crucial issue of Indian policy on GM foods in future and whether the country favourably looks at this food technology, they said.

The country is not against GM-foods per se but at the same time bio-safety concerns cannot be ignored.