The present invention relates to the field of synthesis of short double-stranded RNAs. An in vitro transcription method using bacteriophage polymerases and target sequence-specific single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides as templates is disclosed. The present invention finds particularly advantageous use in the synthesis of short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) that have been shown to function as key intermediates in triggering sequence-specific RNA degradation during posttranscriptional gene silencing in plants and RNA interference in invertebrates and vertebrate systems.