WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman urged Japan on Wednesday to reopen its market to U.S. beef in response to enhanced U.S. surveillance for mad cow disease.

"We are hopeful that this will create some interest on the part of some of our trading partners to look at reopening markets," she said of the new U.S. testing program for mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

"We will continue to pursue this market very aggressively because it is our No. 1 market," Veneman said of Japan.