The order came in response to growing anti-US protests over the acquittal of two US soldiers who crushed two schoolgirls to death with a 50-tonne military vehicle in a road accident in June.

"Through this incident, South Korea and the United States will have to learn to cooperate more closely and improve the Status of Forces Agremeent (SOFA)," Kim said at a cabinet meeting.

He said the two countries could develop their alliance to "a future-oriented one" by revising the accord so that South Korea exercises greater jurisdiction on crimes committed by US soldiers.

The SOFA governs the legal status of US troops stationed under a mutual defense pact dating back to the 1950-1953 Korean War.

It was revised in 1991 and again last year but many South Koreans believe the treaty is unfair. Under the accord US troops come under US jurisdiction for crimes committed while on duty.

Opposition presidential candidate Lee Hoi-Chang joined Kim's call for SOFA revision and also demanded that US President George W. Bush make an explicit and direct apology to South Koreans over the deaths.

"We will take firm measures toward revising the SOFA as the Korean people cannot understand the acquittal," Lee said.

The issue will be raised during a security meeting this week between US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jun.

The annual meeting in Washington on Thursday is expected to be dominated by global security issues such as the US-led war on terrorism and North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program.

Kim, who is to step down in February after a presidential election on December 19, asked the cabinet to come up with "comprehensive measures" to prevent a recurrence of the June 13 deaths.

But he urged South Koreans to moderate their anger, saying the United States is "our very important ally" and a deterrent to war in Northeast Asia.

Calls for revision of the SOFA treaty mounted after a US military court cleared the two US soldiers of negligent homicide two weeks ago. Activists here have demanded a retrial of the soldiers who left for the United States last week.

Bush has offered an apology for the deaths through the US embassy in Seoul, but the gesture has failed to soothe public anger here.

Many Koreans are unhappy that the soldiers walked free and that no one has been held legally responsible for the deaths of the girls. Under the Korean criminal justice system, the soldiers would almost certainly have been jailed.

On Tuesday, 31 lawmakers from rival political parties submitted to the National Assembly a draft resolution demanding revision of the accord.

"The SOFA should be amended in a way that can let the Korean government exercise jurisdiction over crimes involving American soldiers," the resolution said. It also called for an open and direct apology from Bush.

Anti-Americanism, simmering among activist groups in the past, is on the rise, with protestors calling for the withdrawal of 37,000 US troops stationed in South Korea.

Analaysts trace the recent surge in anti-Americanism to the hardline stance toward North Korea adopted by Bush, and fears that the US military presence here is prolonging the division of the Korean peninsula, the last Cold War frontier.

At Kim's call to revise SOFA, the Seoul government is seeking to revise it to allow South Korean authorities to join any US investigation into crimes involving South Koreans, Yonhap news agency said.

Government officials, however, conceded that it is practically impossible for the Kim administration to revise the pact before it leaves office early next year.