Korean cost sharing to decrease:

Washington notified Seoul earlier in the day that it would accept a tentative accord to cut South Korea's share for this year by 8.9 percent from last year to 680.4 billion won and freeze the amount for 2006, officials said.

Last year, South Korea contributed 746.9 billion won or US$622 million.

In U.S. dollars, the agreed amount is higher than last year's as the Korean currency has appreciated sharply against the greenback recently, but officials stressed that this comparison is meaningless as the country pays its contribution in Korean won.

"This is the first time that our share has been reduced," said Kim Sook, a director general at the Foreign Ministry who represented South Korea at the five rounds of negotiations held since November. "We're satisfied with the outcome."

The United States agreed to freeze Seoul's contribution for 2006, but requested that the formal agreement mention a rise of 3 percent from 2005 plus a percentage of the growth in South Korea's gross domestic product, which Washington will then choose to waive, Kim said.

The U.S. side appeared to want this clause included in consideration of similar negotiations with other countries, Kim said.