President Roh Moo-hyun says he is against a proposal to have state-contracted apartment builders disclose their construction costs.

The president made the remarks Wednesday during a dinner meeting with the leadership of the progressive Democratic Labor Party (DLP). Roh said disclosure of how constructors price their apartments would not conform with basic market principles and would not help stamp out property speculation as argued by progressive legislators.

The DLP and reform-minded lawmakers in the ruling Uri Party along with civic groups have been calling for the state-run Korea National Housing Corporation to disclose apartment construction costs. Publicizing them was one of the ruling party's campaign pledges during the April parliamentary elections.

On the DLP's request for Seoul to cancel its plan to send additional troops to Iraq, Roh stressed that the troop deployment is inevitable given the changes surrounding the Korean Peninsula and the status of the South Korea-U.S. alliance.