South Korea's chief negotiator in free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States on Friday said the two sides could resolve a trade dispute over his country's rejection of U.S. beef shipments, one of a few lingering obstacles in the nine-month-old negotiations.

Last year, South Korea resumed imports of American beef, lifting a three-year ban prompted by a mad cow disease scare, but has since turned back three shipments totaling 22.3 tons after tiny bone chips were found in them.

South Korean quarantine officials defended their actions as health-oriented, saying the U.S. should export only boneless meat under an agreement, but Washington accused Seoul of applying safety regulations too strictly to block U.S. beef imports.

While the beef row is not technically part of ongoing FTA negotiations between the two countries, U.S. negotiators have said a deal won't be approved by Congress unless Seoul fully reopens its market to American beef.

At the center of the beef spat is whether the tiny bone fragments can be viewed as bones.

"The agreement says only boneless meat can be imported, but it's a matter of interpretation whether the boneless meat can include bone chips," Kim Jong-hoon said in an interview with MBC radio.

"If we review international standards or examples of other nations, we could sufficiently resolve the beef issue," Kim said.

The top negotiator also called for his country's quarantine officials to have "reasonable and scientific grounds."

"Quarantine officials should not leave room to cause a row with other nations," Kim said.

South Korea and the U.S. will hold their eighth round of FTA talks on March 8-12 in Seoul and South Korean trade officials indicated there would be one more round of talks next month to reach a deal.