The court in the central city of Orleans dismissed the criminal charges of organised vandalism against the 49, who had uprooted GM maize in the region planted by the US biotechnology group Monsanto in two incidents, one last year and the other in 2005.

"The defendants have shown proof that they committed an infraction of voluntary vandalism in a group to respond to a situation of necessity," the court said.

That situation of necessity "resulted from the unbridled distribution of modified genes that constitutes a clear and present danger for the well-being of others, in the sense that it could be the source of contamination and unwanted pollution," it said.

The court, however, upheld the civil complaint against the 49, ordering them to pay a total of 6,000 euros (7,000 dollars) to Monsanto in damages and interest -- although that sum was a small fraction of the 398,000 euros the US company had been seeking.

One of the activists, Jean-Emile Sanchez, called the verdict "a huge victory for the anti-GM side" and said the judgement would form an important legal precedent.

The state prosecutor in the case, Alex Perrin, immediately said both his office and Monsanto would appeal the decision.

He had pressed for prison terms of up to three months for each of the defendants, who included two Green Party politicians, one of whom, Yves Contassot, is a Paris deputy mayor in charge of environmental issues.

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