Bush arrives in Seoul, faces large anti-U.S. protest

Bush received a surprise boost when an estimated 15,000 people held a pro-U.S. rally in the centre of the capital, a sharp contrast to months of mass demonstrations demanding the government ditch a deal to allow back imports of U.S. beef.

A senior U.S. official said the furor over beef, driven by fears of mad cow disease, had receded as an agenda item in the meeting with President Lee Myung-bak after the two sides reworked an April deal to open what was once the third-largest foreign market for the U.S. product.

"That agreement seems to be working extremely well," Dennis Wilder, the White House National Security Council's senior director for Asian affairs, told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Bush's trip to Asia will take him to Bangkok on Wednesday and then on to Beijing for the Olympic Games.

Anti-government groups, who were behind two months of sometimes violent protests against the beef deal, have promised to take to the streets again to protest against Bush's visit.

Police said thousands of conservatives were holding a prayer rally in support of the United States a few hundred meters along the main street where protesters planned to gather.

Washington is Seoul's main ally and maintains a major military presence in the country to defend against any attack by the communist North.

Officials said about 20,000 police had been mobilized for the Bush visit.

Lee agreed to the beef imports in April during his first overseas trip after taking office. Bush hosted him at Camp David, hoping the deal would lift a major barrier to the U.S. Congress approving a free trade deal with Asia's fourth largest economy.

But anger at home over the beef accord became a lightning rod for mass protests that signaled wider dissatisfaction with the conservative Lee government, which has seen its popularity tumble in less than six months in office.

Hours before Bush arrived, the South Korean government announced that quarantine inspectors had allowed in the first shipments of U.S. bone-in beef for five years.

U.S. and South Korean beef will be on the menu when the two leaders have lunch together on Wednesday after their morning talks and a joint news conference.

NORTH KOREA
Wilder said Bush and Lee will discuss progress in verifying North Korea's account of its nuclear weapons program and their free trade deal, signed by the two governments last year but yet to be ratified by either's legislature.

While Pyongyang could be removed from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as early as Aug. 11, that would not happen until an agreement was reached on verification, Wilder said.

Analysts said ties between Seoul and Washington have improved under Lee after cooling under Lee's left-leaning predecessor, who was seen as too soft on North Korea.

Wilder said Bush also wanted North Korea to allow an open investigation into circumstances surrounding the shooting of a South Korean tourist last month.