By Renju Jose and Peter Hobson

SYDNEY/CANBERRA (Reuters) -Australia will not relax its strict biosecurity rules during tariff talks with the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday ahead of a possible meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at this month’s G7 summit.

Since 2003, Australia has curbed entry of U.S. beef after detecting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

But the United States is its largest beef export market, worth A$4.4 billion ($2.9 billion) last year - a trade disparity Trump has criticised.

"We will not change or compromise any of the issues regarding biosecurity, full stop, exclamation mark. It’s simply not worth it," Albanese told broadcaster ABC Radio.

Biosecurity rules safeguard Australia’s disease-free cattle, helping it preserve access to lucrative markets such as Japan and South Korea. Australian beef is prized by U.S. fast food chains for its lower fat content and competitive prices.

Australia allows entry for U.S. beef if the cattle were born, raised and slaughtered in the United States, but few shippers can prove these requirements, as cattle frequently move between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Friday, citing unidentified government officials, said Australian authorities were reviewing whether to allow entry of beef products from cattle raised in Mexico and Canada but slaughtered in the United States, as the Trump administration has demanded.

Albanese said no such concessions were being considered as those imports still posed risks for domestic industry.

The National Farmers’ Federation welcomed Albanese’s remarks. "Australia’s biosecurity status is integral to the success and sustainability of our agricultural industries," said its president, David Jochinke.

TRACKING IMPROVES

However, the U.S. is fast improving its ability to track animals to combat the spread of avian influenza and the New World screwworm, a parasite that eats cattle alive, said Simon Quilty, a meat and livestock analyst at Global AgriTrends.

"America needs to make Australia comfortable with its traceability mechanisms, but I think we’re much closer to achieving that than it looks," he said. "The biosecurity risk is going to be minimal."

U.S. producers are anyway unlikely to ship significant quantities of beef to Australia because cattle and livestock prices are much higher in the United States, Quilty said.

Years of dry weather have shrunk U.S. cattle numbers to their lowest since the 1950s, pushing up domestic prices, but Australia is flush with supply, its herd swelled by wet weather, and offers cheaper lean cuts the United States lacks.

Australia’s total beef exports were worth A$14 billion ($9 billion) last year, trade data show.

Australia is one of the few countries with which the United States normally runs a trade surplus, a point often argued by Australian officials and lawmakers against Trump’s tariffs.

Albanese said he was looking forward to a "face-to-face" meeting with Trump but did not say when.

"We’ve had three conversations that have been constructive, they’ve been polite and they’ve been respectful. That’s the way I deal with people," he added.

($1=A$1.5368)