Italy regions push minister for official GM ban

* Anti-GM regions want farming minister to follow their line

* Regional heads did not vote on co-existence rules

MILAN, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Italy's regional farming heads agreed unanimously on Thursday to urge the agriculture minister to ban cultivation of genetically modified (GM) maize and potatoes, their coordinator on GM policy told Reuters.

Italy has de facto banned cultivation of GM crops pending approval of rules on their co-existence with traditional crops. Public opinion in the country is strongly opposed to GM crops, which are seen as less healthy.

The agricultural policy commission has agreed to ask the minister to exercise a safeguard clause in an existing law to ban cultivation of Monsanto's (MON.N) MON 810 maize and BASF's BASF.DE Amflora potato, said Dario Stefano, in charge of agriculture in Puglia's regional government.

The request comes as a European Union-wide debate on GM cultivation heats up after many of the EU's largest governments on Monday underlined their opposition to a plan to let EU states decide for themselves whether to grow or ban GM crops. [ID:nLDE68Q14N].

The commission, which unites the farming heads of Italy's 20 regions and whose approval is key for any move on GM policy, has put the request on the agenda of a state body due to meet on Oct. 7, Stefano said.

The commission has also added to the agenda a request to the minister, Giancarlo Galan, to follow the regions' view in being "unanimously opposed to cultivation of GMOs" in all the international meetings he attends, Stefano said.

Galan, who takes a softer position than predecessor Luca Zaia, who was fiercely anti-GM, told other EU farm ministers on Monday Europe should have a single, common position on the issue.

In an interview with Reuters last week, Galan said he was in favour of authorising GM research and could impose a decision on a co-existence rule for GM and traditional crops if regional heads failed to reach such decision. [ID:nLDE68M1M7]

Stefano said regional farming heads did not express their opinion on co-existence rules on Thursday, "because we consider them already overtaken by new EU indications".

Italy's biggest farmers association, Coldiretti, cheered the regional heads' move, saying in a statement that Italy's determination not to grow GM crops is a decision in favour of consumers, not an ideological choice.

(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova, editing by Jane Baird)