MERIDA, Mexico, March 12 (Xinhua) -- The international ecological organization Greenpeace on Monday called on Mexican President Felipe Calderon to pressure his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush to halt exports of genetically modified (GM) rice to Mexico.

    Greenpeace, which says GM rice harms human health, made the call in a statement ahead of Calderon's meeting with Bush on Tuesday in Merida, a city in the southeastern Mexican state of Yucatan.

    A dozen protestors rallying outside Merida's La Ermita church told Xinhua that they would press Calderon to tell the United States that it must not export food judged unfit for human to other nations.

    Bush began a week-long tour of Latin America on Thursday, which includes Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico.

    Last week, Greenpeace said that transgenic rice type LL601, created by Bayer, was being sold as own-brand rice from the Soriana company in the northern city of Monterrey and in two Mexico City locations: Chedraui supermarket and the city's wholesale market.

    "If rice must be imported from the United States, let it be normal...without the transgenic varieties that our nation has not authorized for human consumption," said Gustavo Ampugnani, Greenpeace coordinator of the anti-transgenic campaign in Mexico.

    Ampugnani said that Mexico's health authorities knew about the situation and had taken no measures to protect citizens.

    According to Greenpeace data, Mexico imports 70 percent of the rice it consumes, due to a 1999 rice crisis triggered by the increase of U.S. subsidies from 12 billion to 21 billion U.S. dollars.