month process" after food safety experts agreed the meat was safe. But a senior Japanese government official said earlier this month that imports would resume promptly after the Food Safety Commission gave final approval. The commission will now seek public comments on the panel's report for four weeks, possibly from Wednesday, before approval becomes final, a commission official said. The food safety panel also said on Monday that beef and beef offal from Canadian cattle aged 20 months or less were at very low risk from mad cow disease. Japan banned imports of Canadian beef in May 2003 after the first Canadian case of mad cow disease. --SP 1422 Local Time 1122 GMT
