Japan will stop importing U.S. beef again, just one month since such a ban was lifted, after discovering on Friday a U.S. beef shipment containing a body part with possible mad cow disease risks.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he has endorsed a proposal from Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa to totally halt U.S. beef imports due to the discovery, according to Kyodo News.

Koizumi said it is "regrettable" to ban importing U.S. beef again.

Earlier in the day, Nakagawa said a shipment of U.S. beef flown into Tokyo may have contained the animals' spine, a body part risky of mad cow disease.

The ban will be for the time being, Kyodo quoted government officials as saying.

Japan had imposed a ban on U.S. beef in December 2003 after the mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), was found in a U.S. herd.

After around two years of negotiations, Tokyo agreed last month to resume U.S. beef imports, on condition that the meat comes from cows aged up to 20 months and specified risk material that could transmit mad cow disease are removed.

Japan used to be a major U.S. beef market. In 2002, Japan imported 1.7 billion U.S. dollars worth of beef from the country.

Source: Xinhua