ANOTHER round of spring-sown GM crop trial sites were announced yesterday as part of the Government's trials.

Twenty-seven oilseed rape and 17 sugar and fodder beet sites have been chosen by the Independent Scientific Steering committee, from an initial pool of proposed sites submitted by the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops.

Several of the sites are expected to be in the North-East and North Yorkshire, but yesterday farmers in the region were still awaiting confirmation that they had been selected for the trials.

John Richardson, who farms at Hutton Magna, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, has been involved in previous GM trials, despite his crops being attacked by protestors.

"I refuse to be put off by mindless hooligans and I am hoping to be involved in future tests," he said last night.

Further sites for the production of maize, which is sown later in the year, are undergoing assessment and selection of these will be announced separately.

It is the final year of the Government's three-year research programme.