South Korea and Canada have delayed their beef talks scheduled for this week due to a lack of sufficient information about mad cow disease, the government said Monday (Jul 12).

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the two-day negotiations that were to start Tuesday were called off because more time was needed to gather related data to effectively hold talks.

Canada, which received a "controlled risk" status from the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health in 2007, has been demanding that Seoul lift a ban that has been in place since May 2003. Canada has since taken the matter to the World Trade Organisation's dispute settlement panel, but said it is willing to hold bilateral talks to deal with differences.

"The local livestock quarantine consultation committee, which must be held before any beef import talks take place, was not held," ministry spokesman Kim Jong-hoon said, adding that the two sides should be able to reschedule the talks for next month, although no date has been set.

South Korea claimed it is willing to import Canadian beef, but stressed that strict limits need to be imposed due the 17 cases of mad cow disease reported by Ottawa so far. The latest case was reported on Feb 24 of this year.

Before South Korea banned the imports, Canada was the fourth-largest supplier of beef to South Korea after the US, Australia and New Zealand.