KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) -- Monsanto Co has agreed to pay a $2.5 million fine for misbranding biotech cotton seeds in what regulators called the largest settlement of its kind for violating U.S. insecticide law.

Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act when it sold and distributed some cotton seed products in a way that violated restrictions Monsanto had told the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency it would adhere to, the EPA said.

Between 2002 and 2007, more than 1,700 times nationwide, Monsanto distributed or sold Bollgard and Bollgard II cotton seed products containing ...