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Seoul: South Korea's leader plans to ask US President George W. Bush for help in defusing a dispute over American beef imports, his office said on Saturday, as unrelenting protests battered his fledgling administration.
President Lee Myung-bak plans to phone Bush to "convey misgivings and concerns" South Koreans have about US beef, and to ask the United States to refrain from exporting beef from older cattle, considered at greater risk of mad cow disease, the presidential Blue House said.
The move comes a day after South Koreans staged the biggest-yet rally against a beef import deal with Washington that they say fails to protect the country from mad cow disease by allowing meat from cattle of any age.
Police said 65,000 people took part in the protest, in which dozens of demonstrators and riot police were injured.
South Koreans have been taking to the streets nearly every day for weeks to criticise Lee over the beef deal, claiming he ignored their concerns about mad cow disease, behaved arrogantly and gave in to US demands.
Protesters have urged the government to scrap the agreement and negotiate a better one.
US beef has been banned from South Korea for most of the past four and a half years since the first case of mad cow disease in the US was discovered in late 2003. Two subsequent cases were found.
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