SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korean and American negotiators were bogged down in tough free trade talks, an official said Wednesday, as opponents of the proposed deal again took to the streets to denounce it.

“Not a single issue is easy,” Min Dong-seok, deputy minister for trade at South Korea’s Agriculture and Forestry Ministry, told reporters. “Both sides have outstanding differences and are engaged in a tug of war.”

While most sectors have been settled, negotiators acknowledge that automobiles, South Korea’s rice market and the status of South Korean goods manufactured in North Korea are among a handful of contentious issues blocking a deal.

Time is a critical factor as the two sides are trying to conclude an agreement by the end of this month to have it considered under special American presidential authority.

That so-called “fast track” power allows President Bush to send trade agreements to lawmakers for a straight yes-or-no vote without amendments, seen as making it easier for passage by a Congress sometimes skeptical of trade deals.

An agreement to slash tariffs and other barriers would be the biggest for Washington since the landmark North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993.

South Korea has refused to discuss including its rice market in the deal, claiming the staple food is a “sensitive sector” that should be excluded. Washington, at odds with North Korea over its nuclear program, says any deal should include only goods made in South Korea.

Government officials on both sides say an agreement would boost economic ties between two countries that already do more than $75 billion in trade a year.

South Korean opponents, however, fear an influx of cheaper American goods will harm livelihoods and cost jobs.

Protests by farmers, workers, students and anti-globalization activists in South Korea have dogged the negotiations since they began almost 10 months ago, though numbers have dwindled. The biggest, in July, numbered about 25,000 people.

On Sunday, 7,000 demonstrators took to the streets of the capital, culminating in a peaceful rally in front of the American Embassy.

“Korea’s negotiators are unjustly forcing the conclusion of the talks only for the sake of concluding them,” said opponent Park Seok-woon, reflecting the anger of opponents who feel South Korea is rushing the deal for America.

Mr. Park is executive director of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA, which comprises about 300 different groups. The organization held a candlelight protest Wednesday evening.

Police estimated about 1,300 people gathered near Seoul City Hall, chanting slogans and listening to speeches and songs critical of the deal.

“We don’t want to eat mad cow disease U.S. beef in our cafeteria food,” sang a group of elementary school students.

Washington is pressing for the removal of restrictions on American beef imports, absent from South Korean markets for more than three years after mad cow disease was discovered in America.

The beef issue is technically not part of the free trade talks. American lawmakers, however, have said it will be difficult for a deal to win congressional approval unless the dispute is resolved.

American officials say their beef is safe.

Holding a candle at the rally, Song Haeng-rok, a bespectacled law student at Seoul’s Konkuk University, said he fears free trade would increase the power of American investors under South Korea’s legal system.

“I think it’s unfair … (and) unconstitutional,” he said.

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Associated Press Writers Kwang-Tae Kim and Jae-Soon Chang in Seoul contributed to this report.