Japan is expected to ease its two- year-old ban on US and Canadian beef imports before the end of this year as an expert panel sees risks related to mad cow disease between Japanese and North American beef as "extremely small".

A draft recommendation report to be compiled by the research group under the Japan Food Safety Commission will include the wording, according to Kyodo News on Monday.

The research group is expected to present the draft as early as Monday to the commission. The commission will then accept public comments on the draft for about a month to formally compile a recommendation report.

With the formal report, the government is expected to resume imports of US and Canadian beef from animals aged up to 20 months.

The expected beef trade resumption will come more than a year after Japan and the United States struck a basic accord in October last year on the need to lift the import ban from younger animals.

Japan has banned Canadian and US beef imports since the disease, known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was discovered in Canada in May 2003 and the United States in December of that year.

Source: Xinhua