South Korea will start the procedure of US beef imports on Thursday, the Yonhap news agency reported Wednesday.

The South Korean government will post an official ministerial notice on the resumption of its US beef imports in state gazette on Thursday, Yonhap quoted government and ruling party officials as saying.

The notice, the last step in administrative procedures, will signal the full resumption of US beef imports for the first time in nearly five years.

Once Seoul puts the new import conditions into effect, quarantine inspections of beef shipments will take place two or three days later, with imports resuming by early next month, said the officials.

The implementation of the April 18 Seoul-Washington agreement, originally scheduled for mid-May, has been postponed two times due to intensifying domestic protests.

"The agriculture minister will make a public notice of the new rules and request the Public Administration Ministry to post them on the government gazette on June 25," a government official said after a meeting between leading ruling party and government officials Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 25, 2008)