French activist farmer Bove held in custody

BORDEAUX, Nov 4 (Reuters) Police today detained radical farmer Jose Bove, a possible candidate for France's 2007 presidential election, after a demonstration against genetically modified food (GMO) on private property.

Bove and some 50 other farmers went to the police to file a complaint of attempted murder against a corn producer. The owner, who was also held, had fired a gun in the air to disperse the demonstrators, police said.

Between 100 and 150 protesters went to the farm in the southern Gironde region and poured water over what they said was genetically modified corn stocked in a silo in the town of Lugos.

When the owner arrived, he fired his gun and ran his car into four vehicles before the demonstrators overpowered him.

Bove, a prominent protester against globalisation and fast food, said in June he would run for president next year, hoping to rally voters on the far left.

In 2003, he spent six weeks in jail for smashing up a McDonald's restaurant and was sentenced to four months in prison last year for destroying a field of genetically modified corn in southern France.

Reuters SBA VP0315