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SEOUL: Police and protesters clashed at an anti-US beef rally here early on Sunday as Seoul's announcement on extra health safeguards failed to immediately calm South Koreans' fears over mad cow disease.
The violence erupted as thousands of people who had held a candle-lit vigil through the night tried to break through lines of police buses which prevented them from marching on downtown Seoul.
Hundreds of angry demonstrators pulled one police bus away from the barricade, smashed its windows and let down tyres on other security vehicles.
Riot police on the bus were briefly detained by rioters as fights broke out and hand-held fire extinguishers were discharged at violent protesters wielding flag poles.
Dozens of people were injured, according to police and witnesses.
Police said 10,000 people took part in the vigil, though protest organisers put the estimate at 60,000.
The clashes followed South Korea's announcement on Saturday that it had secured extra health safeguards from the United States on beef imports, a move aimed at ending weeks of mass protests here.
Seoul says Washington has agreed not to export beef to South Korea from cattle older than 30 months, in an attempt to alleviate Koreans' fears of mad cow disease. Older cattle are seen as potentially more at risk.
The US government has agreed to run an age verification system for the exports, and US beef processing plants would be banned from exporting products following two violations of the new rules.
"It is only a deception," South Korean civic groups organising the vigil said in a statement, dismissing the outcome of the latest talks as insufficient.
It demanded full renegotiation of the trade deal, saying thousands of protesters would continue the candlelit vigils until their demands are met.
But the Seoul government is expected to take administrative measures to resume US beef imports in the upcoming week, local media reports say.
President Lee Myung-Bak, who took office in February, has faced growing protests over his government's agreement in April to resume the beef imports to clear the way for approval of a wider free trade deal.
He replaced almost all his top aides on Friday to give his government a fresh start and is expected to announce a partial cabinet reshuffle soon.
South Korea was once the third largest market for US beef, with imports worth 850 million US dollars a year until they were suspended in 2003 after a US case of mad cow disease. - AFP/ac
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