SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian lawmakers yesterday cleared the way for rules to permit genetically modified crops and allow Monsanto to sell its popular modified soy seed.

Brazilian soy farmers, who have used cloned or smuggled versions of the biotechnology company's Roundup Ready variety for years, will be able to acquire the seeds legally as long as regulators approve them for planting.

Although the environmental group Greenpeace warned that genetically modified crops will harm the environment, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to sign it into law this month.

Soy production has boomed in Brazil in the past decade, along with the use of the banned genetically modified seeds, despite Monsanto's long-standing complaints that it was being robbed of profits by the widespread illicit use of its technology.

Brazil is second only to the United States in soy production but has the potential to become the world's largest soy producer because of cheap land, low labor costs and plentiful water.

International demand for soy has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by demand in China for soy used in products ranging from animal feed to cooking oil.

Monsanto's soy seed is engineered to withstand the spraying of herbicides, which saves farmers money by cutting down on the number of workers and weedkillers needed. Experts expect genetically modified soy may be the first such seeds to be approved, followed by other seeds for such crops as wheat or cotton.

In India yesterday, Greenpeace pressured the government to scrap licenses it gave to Monsanto for selling its genetically modified cotton seeds. Monsanto's BT (bacillus thuringiensis) cotton is the only genetically modified crop allowed in India. Bacillus thuringiensis is a bacterium whose gene is injected into cotton seeds to give them resistance against bollworms, a major concern for farmers in India.

Stem-cell research approved in Brazil

BRASÍLIA, Brazil — As Brazilians in wheelchairs cheered, legislators voted to legalize stem-cell research using leftover, frozen embryos, offering hope of one day finding treatments for ailments such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease and spinal-cord injuries.

The stem-cell research provision was part of a vast biosecurity bill, which also created a framework to legalize biotech-seed sales, such as genetically modified soy seeds.

Reversing an earlier decision, the lower house of Congress voted 352-60 late Wednesday to permit research with embryos resulting from in-vitro fertilization and frozen for at least three years. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to sign it into law.

Scientists and patients hailed the vote as a breakthrough.

"It's the regenerative era," Dr. Paulo Niemeyer, a renowned neurosurgeon, said yesterday in a televised interview. "Will this work? I don't know. But it's new, and this is our great hope."

Brazilians in wheelchairs also gathered in Congress to urge legislators to pass the bill. "We've waited for this for a long time, and only now were we able to change their minds," Carolina Sanches, who has a neuromuscular disease and uses a wheelchair, told the Rio de Janeiro daily O Globo.

Stem-cell research is widely done in Europe, in countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. Britain allows creation of human embryos for procurement of stem cells. Singapore has been a leader in the research in Asia.

Brazilian legislators upheld a ban on the cloning of embryonic stem cells for therapeutic use and cloning to produce babies. But Brazil has a stock of some 20,000 frozen embryos from fertility clinics, enough for five years of research, Sen. Osmar Dias said.

Stem cells are found in bone marrow, the umbilical cord and in embryos. The embryonic cells are more flexible and can reproduce any tissue with little risk of rejection, said Mayana Zatz, of the Center of Human Genome Studies at the University of São Paulo.