SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- President Lee Myung-bak apologized Thursday to South Koreans over a beef import accord with the United States that spawned protests over the safety of the American meat.

The apology was aimed at calming public anger over the April 18 deal. It does not affect the terms of the agreement, which calls for Seoul to resume full-scale imports of American beef for the first time in more than four years.

Lee said the government should have tried harder to seek the public's understanding of the deal before going forward.

"The government lacked efforts to seek sufficient understanding and collect opinions from the people," Lee said during a nationally televised address. "I humbly accept the point that the government neglected to fathom the people's mind. I feel sorry."

The beef accord has come under heavy criticism for allegedly failing to protect South Koreans against mad cow disease. The deal calls for Seoul to scrap nearly all restrictions that the country, under Lee's predecessor, imposed on American beef over mad cow concerns.

The Lee administration has defended the deal as being based on scientific grounds, repeatedly assuring the public that U.S. beef is safe.

Still, those efforts failed to stop the spread of mad cow worries among South Koreans, fanned in large part by some sensational media reports.

Lee also renewed his pledge to put foremost priority on protecting people's health, and urged the National Assembly to pass a free trade agreement with the United Sates before its term expires next week.

The trade accord, struck last year, now awaits legislative approval in both countries. South Korea's main opposition party is reluctant to ratify the agreement amid public criticism of the beef deal.

South Korea suspended imports of U.S. beef after the first American case of mad cow disease appeared in December 2003 in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state.

Restricted imports of U.S. beef reached South Korean supermarkets last year but were put on hold in October after banned parts were found in a shipment.

Fueling fears was a popular current affairs TV program that claimed Koreans are more susceptible than Americans and Europeans to contracting a rare sickness that can result from eating beef tainted with mad cow disease.

The government dismissed the claim and made repeated assurances that American beef is safe, but thousands of people have held a series of candlelight vigils in recent weeks urging the government to scrap the deal.