Indonesia halts US beef imports amid mad cow case

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JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia became the first country to suspend imports of U.S. beef Thursday following the discovery this week of an American dairy cow infected with mad cow disease.

Reaction elsewhere in Asia, however, was muted with no immediate signs some of the biggest consumers, South Korea and Japan, would follow suit. Both countries are close U.S. allies and their governments are balancing that key relationship against the protectionist demands of their domestic meat industries.

"We will lift the ban as soon as the U.S. can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease," said Indonesia's Vice Agriculture Minister Rusman Heriawan.

"It could be one month or one year," he told reporters. "It depends on how long it takes to resolve this case."