The ratification of South Korea's first FTA has been delayed since its signing nearly a year ago amid strong protests from farmers who claim it will allow in a flood of cheap Chilean farm produce.
President Roh met with farmers representatives Wednesday for a second consecutive day to urge them to back down and asked parliament to "smoothly" pass the bill on Thursday, his office said.
"The government also has difficulty in pushing for it but believes that South Korea should innevitably open up as much as needed," Roh told the farmers group.
Roh had a meeting with a different group of farmers representatives Tuesday but failed to win their backing.
"The FTA is an unavoidable choice for us. I hope the agreement will be endorsed by the parliament as early as possible," said Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan during a briefing held earlier in the day.
Yoon said the pact "would serve as a milestone for us to cope with the changing world economic order" as South Korea is heavily reliant on international trade.
The government's push came as parliament opened a two-day plenary session Wednesday, one week after lawmakers representing farmers physically blocked a vote on the pact by occupying the speaker's seat.
Parliamentary speaker Park Kwana-Young has pledged to seek a vote on the free trade agreement during the current session but farmers were preparing to launch fresh protests outside the parliament building in Seoul.
Eight farmers groups, including the Korean Farmers League with 50,000 members nation-wide, said it would hold a street rally outside the National Assembly building on Thursday.
"If the parliament endorses the FTA bill without properly understanding the farmers, we will go tough on it," the league said in a statement.
Last week's street rally led to violent clash between police and thousands of farmers in which 10 people were injured.