Japan agreed Saturday to resume imports of some American beef after a 10-month ban that shut United States cattle ranchers out of their most lucrative foreign market.

Last October, American officials say, Japan agreed to resume imports of beef from cows under 21 months, an age group not deemed to be at risk from the disease.

In 2001, various parties agreed to resume imports at the facility, while continuing its storage operations.

A cattle group, R-Calf U.S.A., based in Montana, sued to stop the department's plan to resume imports.

In his opinion, Judge Cebull criticized the department for its rush to resume imports without more reassurances that Canadian cattle were free of mad cow.

After closing the border in May 2003, the United States resumed imports of packaged beef from Canada in October of that year.

Japan said on Wednesday that it would resume imports of American beef after an agreement was struck that would allow Japanese inspectors into packing plants in the United States.

Japan resumed imports last December, but then shut its market again a few weeks later when an exporter based in Brooklyn, included parts of a backbone in a shipment.

Japan has been calling for ranchers in the United States to test every cow for the disease as a condition to resuming imports, but Washington has refused to go along.

Early this month in Billings, Mont., a federal judge, Richard Cebull, blocked the Bush administration's plans to resume imports of Canadian cattle and beef.