Seoul - In an apparent move to appease South Koreans over the lifting of a ban on imports of US beef, President Lee Myung Bak on Monday replaced three ministers in his fledgling cabinet.

Lee replaced the ministers of agriculture, health and education. The entire cabinet and Prime Minister Han Seung Soo offered to resign a month ago to take responsibility for the April decision to allow US beef back into the country after imports were halted in 2003 after a US mad cow case.

There have been mass rallies nationwide since the ban was lifted and the crisis has caused President Lee's approval ratings to plummet. He has been in office since the end of February.

Lee named Ahn Byong Man, a presidential advisor for state future planning, to replace Kim Do Yeon as minister of education; Jang Tae Pyoung, a former secretary general of a state anti-corruption panel, to replace Chung Woon Chan as agriculture minister; Jeon Jae Hee, a female lawmaker of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), was nominated to succeed Kim Soung Yee as minister of health.

In a compromise, the US and South Korea have already agreed on more stringent import criteria so that only beef younger than 30 months would be allowed into South Korea. Mad-cow disease occurs mainly in older cattle.

The removal of the import ban was considered a condition for the ratification of a South Korean-US free trade agreement by the US Congress.

Mad-cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is a brain-wasting illness that can be transmitted to people who eat infected meat. (dpa)