Toronto: Biotech industry officials vowed to fight the international backlash against genetically modified foods and other controversial bio-technology applications at the world's biggest bio-tech meeting, which opened on June 10.

Some 14,000 bio-tech professionals from 45 countries, including Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, France, Saudi Arabia and the United States are on hand for the BIO 2002 conference, the largest annual conference of its kind.

Bio-technology Industry Organisation (BIO) president Carl Feldbaum urged industry members in a luncheon speech to counter controversies that have embroiled the $16 billion industry in recent years with an industry-based plan.

"There is the determination in some circles to hold our technology at bay, to halt the spread of bio-tech crops and certain other technologies, such as stem cells, that may change trade balances, threaten entrenched agricultural interests or question tradition or religious values," Feldbaum said.

Feldbaum outlined a plan that includes among other initiatives; showing how agricultural bio-technology can address the nutritional needs of the developing world with more efficient crop yields.

He also called on bio-tech firms to expand research into diseases that attack the developing world, like malaria, cholera and tuberculosis.

Earlier on June 10, the industry got welcome news from US Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy Thompson, who said the United States is against mandatory labeling for bio-tech food products.

"Mandatory labeling will only frighten consumers," Thompson told a breakfast bio- tech gathering, adding that such labeling implies foods are unsafe.

Unlike some European countries which have banned the sale of any new engineered products, the US where about 70 per cent of bio-tech food is grown is opposed to labeling and has encouraged its nearly 1,400 US bio-tech firms.

Outside the conference centre, dozens of protesters could be seen at a park across the street midday, but a few hours later they had dispersed while police officers remained there.

"Bio-technology should be used to develop treatments and protective products for both military personnel and civilians, but it must never be used to develop weapons," Feldbaum said.

He pressed biotech firms to work more closely with governments and international bodies to integrate bio-technology into responses to public-health crises, citing the recent anthrax scares in the US.