Snow Brand Food Co., which has admitted to relabeling imported beef to get domestic subsidies, said Friday it will suspend beef-related operations, while its president indicated he may resign to take responsibility for the company's crooked behavior.

"I will clarify my responsibility shortly," Snow Brand Food President Shozo Yoshida told reporters after he met with officials from the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

Company officials said the farm ministry called in Yoshida and other senior officials, urging them to temporarily exit the beef business, as the company stands accused of abusing a beef buyback policy related to the outbreak of mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

During the meeting, the ministry also ordered Snow Brand Food to investigate the incident fully, punish those responsible and work out measures to prevent a recurrence, the officials said.

The company told the ministry it will accept all the requests and will report back to the ministry once its investigations are completed, they said.

Earlier this week, Snow Brand Food disclosed that in October employees in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture, repackaged 13.8 tons of Australian beef to pass it off as Japanese beef and claim government compensation under the buyback policy.

The farm ministry started buying back domestic beef after mad cow disease was discovered in Japan in September, causing beef consumption to plunge.

The scandal is an additional blow to Snow Brand Milk Products Co., the parent company, which is still struggling to recover from slumping business after a food-poisoning scandal in the summer of 2000.

Earlier Friday, farm minister Tsutomu Takebe told a news conference that the ministry will file a fraud complaint against Snow Brand Food in the wake of the incident.

"The company should adopt clear and rigid steps to deal with the question of responsibility (held by Snow Brand Food President Shozo Yoshida)," he said.

Scandal may come up

SYDNEY (Kyodo) Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss may raise a meat-labeling scandal centering on Japanese company Snow Brand Food Co. when he meets with his counterpart in Japan next week, a government spokesman said Friday.

Truss will visit Osaka and Tokyo from Sunday to Wednesday for talks with Japanese government ministers, officials and food industry leaders.

Snow Brand Food admitted Wednesday that its employees repackaged 13.8 tons of Australian beef as Japanese meat in an attempt to claim government subsidies through a state-run beef buyback policy introduced after a scare over mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, swept though Japan late last year.

"He may well raise that issue," the spokesman told Kyodo News.

"He'll definitely be emphasizing the quality and safety of Australian beef, particularly in relation to BSE in Japan where it's important for him to reassure consumers that Australian beef is safe."

Our beef is safe: U.S.

OSAKA -- The head of the U.S. Meat Export Federation said Friday that a public relations campaign will be launched in Japan over the next several months to convince consumers that American beef is safe.

At the same time, Philip Seng urged Japan to make its investigation into Snow Brand's false labeling of Japanese beef as Australian meat open and transparent, so that public trust in beef will return.

"Our task is to present information to show that U.S. beef is completely safe from mad cow disease, and we will begin an informational campaign in the Japanese media very shortly which will emphasize that U.S. food safety laws are far more stringent than international norms," Seng told a news conference in Osaka.

When asked about the Snow Brand scandal, Seng indicated that Japanese consumer confidence in beef would only be restored if food safety procedures are subject to public scrutiny.