Agence France-Presse . Seoul

A South Korean lawmaker Tuesday locked himself inside a parliamentary committee room to try to block moves to ratify a free trade deal with the United States, officials said.

Kang Ki-Kab of the leftist Democratic Labour Party entered the foreign affairs and trade committee room before dawn and has refused to come out, they said.

The DLP, which has nine MPs, strongly opposes the agreement signed last June but still awaiting ratification by the legislatures of both countries. 'Representative Kang has since been staging a sit-in protest inside and several of his aides are also with him,' a parliament official told AFP.

Yonhap news agency said he is also staging a hunger strike but the official could not confirm this. The committee is scheduled to meet in the room Wednesday to discuss whether it should debate a motion to ratify the deal. Kang told Yonhap he wants to 'prevent ratification of the deal, which will bring more harm than benefit to the national economy and the public livelihood.'

On Monday DLP lawmakers had blocked committee chairman Kim Won-Wung from entering the chamber. Farmers and unions oppose the deal, saying it would cost them their jobs. Both the current and incoming government and business chiefs support it, saying it would greatly expand trade and help modernise Korea's economy.

US-South Korean trade was worth 74 billion dollars in 2006. Some studies show this could rise by up to 20 billion dollars in coming years under a free trade regime. President-elect Lee Myung-Bak's conservative Grand National Party wants the bill passed before he takes office on February 25.

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