SEOUL (Reuters) — US and South Korean negotiators missed their deadline to agree a major trade deal in the early hours of this morning but talks continued.It is the second deadline that has gone by in the search for what would be the largest US trade pact in 15 years. The first was on Saturday and the second at 1 a.m. this morning (Seoul time).

“They’re still meeting because there are issues left to be discussed,” a South Korean official told reporters as the second deadline expired. He declined to say if the talks were nearing a deal.

One protester against the proposed free-trade agreement set fire to himself yesterday near the central Seoul hotel which has been the venue for the final round of talks over the past week.

The 56-year-old man was taken to hospital where he was in critical condition with third-degree burns.

South Korean officials have said the most contentious issues were agriculture, including beef and oranges, autos and textiles.

In the past few days, US leaders have been loudly pressing their demands that South Korea open its tightly protected market to beef and autos.

Beef is not strictly part of the negotiations but has become closely linked. South Korea used to be a major market for US beef until it banned imports in 2002 due a US mad cow outbreak. South Korea said in September it would resume imports if parts it deemed risky, such as bones, were not included.

Some estimates say an agreement could add $20 billion to the already more than $70 billion two-way trade each year.

But the two need to reach an agreement while the White House still has the right, under fast-track trade legislation that expires on June 30, to negotiate trade pacts that Congress may approve or reject but cannot alter.

Without it, talks could drag on for years. The two sides had set today’s deadline two days ago, saying they expected progress in extended talks. Yesterday, a US trade official said the 1 a.m. deadline would have to be met.

It was not clear how the missed deadline would impact the negotiations that Washington and Seoul began in June 2006 or whether they would set another deadline.

Negotiators had looked on the verge of signing a deal after presidents George W. Bush and Roh Moo-hyun agreed on Thursday to instruct their negotiators to be as flexible as possible.

Some nine months of talks have been shadowed by large and sometimes violent protests in South Korea, mostly over fears that its heavily subsidised farmers could not survive a flood of cheaper US farm products.

Farmers say opening up their market would cost them billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs.

On autos, officials say Washington’s demands to change South Korea’s tax structure to remove discrimination against American cars would have a much wider impact and could cost the government billions of dollars in lost revenue.

The US also wants greater access to South Korea’s lucrative financial services, including insurance.

Seoul is pressing Washington to change anti-dumping laws it says are unfairly applied to its products.