Japanese farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa said on Monday that the U.S. report on its probe into a shipment last month of banned bovine material and measures to prevent a recurrence is "insufficient".

Japan is considering to make a range of inquiries with Washington on the issue, Kyodo News quoted Nakagawa as telling reporters after meeting with prime minister Junichiro Koizumi.

The U.S. side admitted a flaw in its beef exports inspection system and pledged to take various measures to prevent a repeat of the incident, Nakagawa said.

Japan suspended all U.S. beef imports on Jan. 20, only a month after resuming the trade, as it detected in a U.S. beef shipment a bovine spine, which is banned in Japan for fear of the mad cow disease.

U.S. Agriculture Department on Friday released the report into the affair.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said earlier in a press conference that the beef import ban will be lifted again only after the United States reassures Japanese consumers about the safety of the beef they sell.

Source: Xinhua