South Korea protest against beef, Lee

South Korea police said about 35,000 people gathered in the capital yesterday for renewed protests against the polices of the new president, especially his US beef import deal.

Weeks of street rallies, which have often turned violent, have shaken the government of newly elected President Lee Myung-bak.

While polls show most South Koreans oppose a deal Lee struck in April to open the market to US beef, about two-thirds of respondents say it is also time to halt the rallies that have led to the country's most violent street clashes.

Protest organisers, which include civic groups, religious leaders and a labour group said they expected hundreds of thousands to attend.

There were no major incidents of violence in the first few hours of the rally.

The protests began in early May by people worried about possible mad cow disease in US beef but later grew into a forum where a wide variety of people gathered to air grievances against Lee, who won a December election by a landslide.

Lee has seen his support rate plummet and analysts said he cannot implement reforms such as privatising state-run firms and revamping pension systems unless he wins back the public. Rallies last weekend left hundreds of protesters and conscripted riot policemen injured, prompting religious leaders to join the rallies in the hopes of calming things down.

South Korean and US trade envoys reworked the beef deal in June with a private-sector agreement that limits trade in beef to cattle under 30 months of age, thought to pose a low risk for mad cow disease, and prohibits shipments of risky body parts.

US and South Korean leaders have said there is no scientific evidence that shows the US beef headed to South Korea poses a risk for the brain-wasting disease.

US beef returned this week to store shelves in South Korea, once the third-largest overseas market for the product with annual sales of about $850 million before Seoul banned sales in 2003 due to an outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States.