THREE fields in County Durham are among up to 300 sites in the country earmarked for new genetically modified (GM) crop trials in the spring.

Oilseed rape is being planted at Oakenshaw, near Willington, and Hutton Magna, between Barnard Castle and Darlington. Hutton Magna is also the site of a fodder beet trial. They are in the Government's programme of Farm-Scale Evaluations of herbicide tolerant GM crops published by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions yesterday. Sites for maize, which is sown later in the year, will be announced at the end of March.

Details of the sites, including grid references, are published on the DETR website www.detr.gov.uk