A lack of key witnesses caused the House of Councilors agriculture panel to cancel a meeting Tuesday in which a resolution calling for "caution" in resuming beef imports from the U.S. was expected to be adopted.

The witnesses, prion experts from a key government panel, apparently refused to appear due to academic obligations.

Beef imports from the U.S. have been halted since the December 2003 discovery of its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The independent Food Safety Commission is deliberating whether that ban should be lifted.