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"We've asked the agricultural department in Hubei Province to conduct on-the-spot examination on this issue," an unidentified official with the Office of Genetically Modified Organism Safety under the Ministry of Agriculture was reported as saying, by the newspaper.

"We have not seen the concrete testing reports. Moreover, the testing of GM rice seeds should be based on China's technical standards," he said.

The Greenpeace representative told China Daily that samples collected in Hubei Province were sent to a gene testing laboratory in Germany.

Zhu Xinquan, chairman of the Chinese Society of Agro-Biotechnology, said to China Daily: "I cannot agree with the findings of the report by Greenpeace and I am wondering if the tests conducted by the organization are scientific or not."

"Regulations on GM food have been in force for several years in China and the nation is doing more research before approving the commercialization of GM rice. A cautious attitude must be taken on the safety of GM rice since it is a highly important food for Chinese people," said Zhu to China Daily.

Scientists at Huazhong Agriculture University in Wuhan, capital of Hubei, have been conducting tests with the engineered strain of rice.