Seoul  - Just three months into his term of office, South Korea's President Lee Myung Bak on Thursday apologized to the nation Thursday for failing to understand the people's concerns about mad cow disease following his government's decision last month to reopen the domestic market to US beef.

"The government didn't make sufficient efforts to seek the people's understanding and collect opinions," Lee said said during a live TV broadcast.

Lee took responsibility for "policy confusion" in his administration, but said he was "embarrassed" over Koreans "groundless" fears of mad cow disease from imported US beef.

Despite repetitive confirmations that US beef was free of mad cow disease, there have been street protests over the April 18 agreement to lift restrictions on US beef.

South Korea suspended imports of US beef in December 2003 after mad cow disease was found in a Canadian-born cow in the US state of Washington.

Riding on the lifting of the beef ban is the impending US Congress approval of the long-negotiated 29-billion-dollar free-trade agreement.

Lee assured in his speech that US beef imports would be suspended if the health of the Korean people is threatened.

The conservative president urged Korean lawmakers to ratify the US-South Korean trade past as soon as possible "to provide fresh impetus to the sluggish Korean economy."

Nicknamed the bulldozer, the former mayor of Seoul said that from now on he'll approach (policies) towards the people with a more "humble attitude." (dpa)