SEOUL, March 12: The United States and South Korea made significant progress in less sensitive issues on Monday, the chief US negotiator said, as they wrapped up free trade talks ahead of a looming end-month deadline.

“Across the board, we have made significant headway,” Assistant US Trade Representative Wendy Cutler said, indicating there would be no more formal talks after the latest round in Seoul.

Cutler said both sides could conclude negotiations in time despite differences in automobiles, agriculture and other sensitive issues that would require more informal talks between top negotiators or minister-level meetings.

“Based on the progress we have made here this week, I firmly believe that an agreement ... is within our grasp,” she said.

Full agreement was reached in three out of 19 chapters under review -- competition policy, government procurement and customs affairs. Both sides are also “very close” to reaching agreement on nine others including financial services and telecommunications, Cutler said.

“The unprecedented progress we have made here this week in the eighth and final round gives me an increasing confidence that we can do this.” Cutler said she would have a one-on-one meeting with her South Korean counterpart Kim Jong-Hoon in Washington on March 19 while top agriculture officials will hold separate talks in Seoul on the same day.

South Korean officials also expressed confidence that both sides could strike a deal at least by March 30.

“Concluding negotiations are in sight,” Lee Hye-Min, South Korea's deputy chief negotiator, said, adding the two sides had narrowed “most differences at working-level meetings.” At the same time, the two countries would have to show “flexibility” to resolve core issues such as automobiles and agriculture market access, he said.

“Agriculture and automobiles are the most contentious issues,” he said.

South Korean officials have said both sides were struggling hard to narrow differences over automobiles, textiles, pharmaceuticals, anti-dumping remedies and farm goods such as rice.

Washington wants the early elimination of South Korean levies on American cars given that very few are sold here compared with hundreds of thousands moving the other way.

Seoul insists it will maintain trade barriers on rice and other sensitive items to protect its way of life while Washington says there should be no exceptions.

The deal, if agreed, would be the biggest since the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. US-South Korean bilateral trade reached $74 billion in 2006.

US negotiators must submit any FTA deal to Congress by April 2 for a 90-day review before President George W. Bush's “fast-track” trade promotion authority expires on July 1.

South Korea has pushed for the pact despite hostility from farmers and other workers who fear for the loss of their jobs if US goods gain access.

Some 3,000 protesters clashed with riot police on Saturday in downtown Seoul, leaving seven officers injured. Police detained 20 activists.

On Monday, 20 activists, including four imprisoned in the central city of Daejon for a violent protest against the deal in November last year, started a hunger strike, according to the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-US FTA, a coalition of civic groups. —AFP