Seoul - In a country known as the world's most guarded safe haven for domestically produced phones, South Korean mobile phone carriers said they are ready to launch overseas-made handsets from Apple, RIM and Nokia.

Carriers are already in the final stages of getting non-Korean phones into the domestic market for consumers who have been anxiously waiting for trendy headsets like Apple's iPhone, after regulators lifted a rule requiring headsets to include include local software, which effectively closed the market to foreign producers.

South Korean regulators last week announced that of April 1, 2009, the mandatory Wireless Internet Platform for Interoperability will be discontinued.

"We are ready to get Apple's iPhone into the [domestic] market anytime soon," said Oh Young-Ho, a senior manager at LG Electronic's handset planning division.

South Korean mobile phone company KTF has also held talks with Apple on the introduction iPhones.

A KTF spokesman said the company was also holding talks with world market leader Finland-based Nokia on the introduction of low-priced mobile phones once the ban on overseas products is lifted.

Since its introduction in 2006, the ban has been a hurdle that has effectively barred non-Korean handset vendors from entering a country where mobile phone use is almost universal.

Most of the domestically-sold handsets in South Korea are made by Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics. Each company generates about 10 per cent of its revenue from handset sales. (dpa)