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WASHINGTON : The United States and South Korea resumed talks on Tuesday on a US beef import agreement that has stoked massive protests rocking the new Seoul government.
Officials from both sides resumed discussions on technical issues begun Monday, spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel of the US Trade Representative's office (USTR) told AFP.
Trade Representative Susan Schwab and South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-Hoon were to restart discussions in Washington later in the afternoon, Hamel said.
Negotiators were trying to find a way out of the crisis rocking the conservative administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, who took office less than four months ago.
Tens of thousands of protesters have demonstrated in recent weeks over fears the US beef could be tainted with mad-cow disease.
On Tuesday, the militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said a majority of its members had voted for a general strike next month to protest the beef deal and other government policies.
The agreement to resume the imports, suspended in 2003 after the discovery of an animal from Canada infected with mad-cow disease, was reached in April.
But it has not gone into force due to the storm of Internet-fuelled protests, which caught Lee's government by surprise.
Schwab and Kim agreed to delay a third meeting scheduled for Monday because of unresolved technical issues, the two sides said.
A foreign ministry in Seoul said Kim and Schwab also held an "unofficial consultation" Monday afternoon at the request of the US side.
Schwab brought a revised proposal to that meeting, the South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an unidentified Seoul official as saying.
"Although there are some improvements in the revised proposal, it is still far from our expectations," the official said without elaborating.
The two top trade officials had held talks on Friday and Saturday.
South Korea wants a voluntary ban by US exporters on the shipment of cattle aged over 30 months, which are seen as potentially more prone to the disease.
But sources quoted by Yonhap said negotiators were having difficulty agreeing on some form of government guarantee for the voluntary ban. - AFP/de
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