US beef exported to Indonesia was safe for consumers as its quality was scientifically controlled, US Ambassador to Indonesia Lynn B. Pascoe said on Thursday.

"I am perfectly confident that beef from the United States is safe, " Pascoe said after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace.

The United States had continuously monitored the quality of the commodity under a scientific program, he added.

Meanwhile, Pascoe said that he could understand over Indonesia's decision Wednesday to impose ban to US beef import.

"But it is perfectly the right of the government of Indonesia to make this decision and decide what it wants to do," he said.

Separately, Director of Animal Health of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture Tri Satya Naipospos confirmed to Xinhua that the ban over US beef woull be implemented on Friday, aiming at protecting the spread of mad-cow disease to Indonesia.

"We will implement the ban on July 1, in a bid to protect Indonesian people from the disease," she said after a meeting at her office discussing the case, which was also presented by US representative.

The US beef industry is still suffering after international trade curbs were imposed upon its first discovery of mad cow, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, in December 2003. Major importers including Japan and South Korea sealed their borders to US beef, fearing damage to their domestic industries and mad cow's human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is a fatal brain disorder.

Indonesia also implemented a US beef import ban in 2003 but lifted it in May 2004. Since then, Indonesia has imported 4,300 tons of beef products from the US, including the estimated 500 tons that are being shipped, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Source: Xinhua