United States-Looking for meat buyers.

UNITED STATES-COURTING MEAT BUYERS.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will hold bi-lateral meetings with agriculture ministers from Japan, Egypt and Russia while attending the Group of Eight Agricultural Ministerial meeting in Italy that begins on Saturday, USDA said in a news release.

"I hope to have at least a brief conversation about how we can reassure the Japanese market that we have quality beef that should be available to their consumers," Vilsack told reporters on Wednesday. "We obviously have work to do in terms of convincing our trading partners that we have the highest quality and best prices," Reuters quoted him as saying.

Japan currently only accepts U.S. beef from cattle 20 months of age or younger, stemming from concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

In addition to G8 agricultural ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, agricultural leaders from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Egypt, India, Mexico and South Africa are expected to attend.