South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan on Tuesday offered to resign over a so-called "golf scandal," South Korean Presidential Office confirmed.

"President Roh met with Prime Minister Lee at the Presidential Office shortly after his return from a nine-day African trip, along with a number of Presidential Office's secretaries," Roh's spokesman Kim Man-soo said.

"At the meeting, Lee offered to step down as prime minister. But the president did not show any response," the spokesman added, explaining that the president may take more time before his final decision on the embattled prime minister's resignation offer.

Lee has been at a center of criticism since earlier this month for he played golf with a group of businessmen on March 1 in Busan, when a nationwide strike of railway workers began. The day is also a public holiday to mark a 1919 mass uprising for independence against Japanese colonial rule.

Even worse, one of Lee's golf partners was found to have criminal records. The businessman, head of a flour mill company, was reportedly ruled by the Fair Trade Commission to pay 3.5 billion won (US$3.58 million) in financial penalty for illegal business activities.

Local media and opposition parties have widely raised the possibility the flour businessman was lobbying the prime minister during the golf game to avoid the penalty.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2006)