Despite lingering concern over the safety of U.S. beef, Japan continued final talks with Washington past midnight Tuesday on lifting the import ban, after winning a slew of concessions on inspection procedures for mad cow disease.

"I believe we will go to the next step" toward resuming imports, farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa had said earlier in the day, indicating senior officials from the two countries would reach the agreement at a teleconference in the evening. The lengthy talks, with a one-hour break, ended up continuing well into the night.

If the ban is lifted, U.S. beef shipments would reportedly resume late next month, albeit without blanket testing.