By Miho Yoshikawa

TOKYO, June 21 (Reuters) - Japanese consumer fears about the safety of U.S. beef persist, a public hearing showed on Thursday, even as Tokyo appeared headed towards restarting talks with Washington to ease current tight import rules for the meat.

About 170 people from consumer groups and the beef industry attended a government-sponsored public hearing on last month's inspection of U.S. meatpacking facilities by Japanese experts, which found no major violations of safety guidelines.

The safety rules were adopted as part of an agreement to allow the United States to resume beef exports to Japan, first halted in December 2003 following the discovery of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease.

During a question-and-answer session, Masae Wada, a member of the Housewives' Association, said she remained concerned about whether U.S. meatpackers were abiding by the safety rules.

Wada later told Reuters: "I think the United States should show more good faith if they want to sell more beef to Japan. Right now, I don't see that."

Wada also expressed distrust of what she described as Washington's high-handed tactics to try to pressure Tokyo to ease safety rules in a bid to regain its position as a top supplier of beef to the lucrative Japanese market.

The conclusion of the Japanese inspections is widely expected to pave the way for the start of fresh bilateral talks to review current tight import rules. Government officials have so far declined to say when a review might begin.

AGE DISPUTE

Beef supplies from the United States have remained slumped at about 10 percent of their pre-ban level, largely due to a restriction on the cattle's age.

Washington is demanding that Japan resume imports of U.S. beef from cattle aged up to 30 months, in line with global standards.

Tokyo currently only accepts U.S. beef from cattle aged 20 months or younger, citing safety reasons, as younger cattle are thought less likely to develop the brain-wasting disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

Participants at Thursday's meeting also expressed dissatisfaction at Tokyo's decision last week to stop checking all U.S. beef cargoes, a time-consuming and costly process.

An analyst at Australia's top meat industry marketing body told Reuters on Thursday that scrapping the 100 percent checks would double the volume of U.S. beef shipments to Japan, currently around 2,000 tonnes a month.

Peter Weeks, chief market analyst of Meat & Livestock Australia, added, however, that U.S. volumes were unlikely to exceed 5,000 tonnes a month in the months ahead.

This compares with U.S. beef exports before the ban that amounted to 240,000 tonnes in 2003.

Beef industry sources say more supermarkets are beginning to offer U.S. beef, a sign that consumer resistance may be slowly fading.

But Thursday's meeting underscored that some consumers continued to fret. Japanese government officials sought to foster consumer understanding that human error could not be totally eliminated.

"It's not possible to say there is zero risk of it (violations) being repeated ... but we will try to lower that risk as much as we can," said Agriculture Ministry's Animal Health Division Director Takashi Himeda. Four cases of safety violations were found in U.S. beef supplies after the ban was lifted, and Himeda was responding to a question about fears that it could happen again.

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