President George W. Bush said Thursday the Chinese "need" to eat US beef for their health, and lamented that China refuses to allow imports because of mad-cow concerns.
Bush, speaking at a news conference after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi, said he was "disappointed" that China was still not accepting US beef.
"They need to be eating US beef. It's good for them. They'll like it. And so we're working hard to get that beef market opened up," he said.
Wu agreed that beef was an "outstanding" issue and pledged to "report to my boss (President Hu Jintao) and find a solution to that" on her return home.
The Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on Tuesday rated the United States and Canada "controlled risk" nations for mad cow disease.
But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, briefing reporters, said "China always respects the decision of the OIE but China also has its own national conditions.
"We also know this issue of madcow disease is very sensitive," he said.
Bush's push to the Chinese to accept US beef was the latest stab at so-called "cheeseburger diplomacy" to try to get major trading partners like China, Japan and South Korea to remove curbs on US beef imports.
The barriers were erected over fears that US beef is tainted with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the brain-wasting condition commonly known as mad-cow disease.
Bush, under pressure from US lawmakers from cattle-ranching states, last month served Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cheeseburgers for lunch.
An earlier course of "cheeseburger diplomacy" was served in 2004 to then-French president Jacques Chirac. The French leader, who was at odds with Bush over the Iraq invasion, nevertheless complimented him on the sandwich.
Beef was also a key dish at a dinner for Wu and other Chinese cabinet ministers hosted by US business leaders on Thursday.
