S Korea and US fail to agree on beef imports

SEOUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) South Korea on Friday said it and the United States had failed to resolve a dispute over US beef imports, which Washington said could threaten a sweeping bilateral trade pact.

The two sides could not narrow differences on each side and decided to discuss the issue later, after a two-day trade talks, South Korea's agriculture ministry said in a statement.

The two countires had a technical meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss how to define boneless beef and whether to screen all shipments for bone fragments with X-ray machines.

South Korea, which suspended imports after a mad cow outbreak in the United States in 2003, struck a deal last year to resume imports but turned away several US beef shipments in the past few months after finding bone fragments as small as coffee beans.

REUTERS DKS BST0710