By Kang Shinhye SEOUL, Dec 8 (Reuters) - South Korea has turned to X-ray machines and a lot of sharp knives to reject shipments of U.S. beef due to bone chips as small as grains of rice, prompting Washington to say Seoul is seeking excuses to turn back imports. South Korea, which once was the third-largest importer of U.S. beef, struck a deal with the United States to resume imports, provided the shipments do not have risky materials such as bone. And Seoul is abiding by the letter of the law. As a part of that process, it is subjecting every piece of imported U.S. beef to X-ray. The agriculture ministry has been able to find chips the size of a pea and coffee bean this way, which has prompted it to reject tonnes of U.S. beef. South Korea plans to have 12 X-ray machines by the end of this year, anticipating more U.S. beef arriving in 2007, a ministry official said. In case the machines do not turn up bone chips, South Korean inspectors then cut into the meat to see if any chips turn up. It found seven such chips the size of grains of rice earlier this week, prompting it to return a 10.2-tonne shipment. The rejection was the third straight for South Korea since it said it September it would resume imports and end a three-year ban imposed after an outbreak of mad cow disease in the United States. "The consecutive rejections were in line with our bilateral accord but we can discuss our policy if the U.S. wants talks," said Kim Chang-sub, director at the ministry's quarantine department. In the past three weeks, South Korea said it will return 22 tonnes of U.S. beef and it has suspended receiving beef exports from three U.S. plants among 36 plants that the country approved. The beef spat has soured talks in Montana this week where South Korean and U.S. negotiators have been trying to hammer out a bilateral free-trade agreement. "The rejection of the third shipment clearly illustrates that South Korean officials are determined to find an excuse to reject all beef products from the United States," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said this week. South Korean officials have said they have no intention to back down. But some in the local industry say it is nearly impossible for U.S. beef packers, who typically use machines to cut away bones, to meet Seoul's zero tolerance on beef bones. They say cutting by hand is more effective in removing bones and chips, even though it is not economically efficient. "The mass-slaughtering system in the U.S. is quite different from the small-sized system in South Korea. Tiny fragments of bone material are unavoidable in large shipments," said an official at a South Korean feed company. While Washington and Seoul chew over the beef dispute, other beef exporters such as Australia have been increasing their presence in the South Korean market. The United States once accounted for more than two-thirds of South Korea's beef imports, or about $850 million a year of products. After the ban, sales of Australian beef in South Korea jumped from some 64,000 tonnes in 2003 to about 101,000 tonnes in 2005. U.S. beef imports totalled just under 200,000 tonnes in 2003, according to the agriculture ministry.
