US holds one-to-one talks with N Korea

Egyptians light candles and lay flowers in front of the destroyed Ghazala Garden hotel Sunday. Over 500 people participated in a peace rally against terrorism in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh after the string of bomb attacks. PHOTO: AFP

The contact came a day before the reopening of six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear arms programmes that were broken off last year.

With Washington hinting it might soften its tough stance on North Korea to break the deadlock when the talks resume Tuesday, top US negotiator Christopher Hill said the two sides needed to review the situation.

"I want to stress these are not negotiations. We are just trying to get acquainted, to review how we see things coming up and compare notes," Hill told reporters before the 75-minute talks started.

It was the first time that the US and North Korea have held bilateral contacts before the six-party process, which seeks an end to the North's nuclear arms drive in return for diplomatic and economic benefits.

The six-way talks have been held three times before, ending inconclusively each time.

North Korea abandoned the talks last year and has since claimed it already possesses nuclear weapons, heightening tension over what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls the world's most dangerous nuclear proliferation issue.

"We have to produce an agreement this time. There was a dialogue conscious of such a goal," a South Korean government official said after his nation's talks with the US delegation.

In a flurry of diplomacy before the formal opening of the talks, North Korea met South Korea on Sunday and Russia on Monday while the United States sat down with the other nations in the six-way negotiations, China and Japan.

Hill said the purpose of the bilateral meetings was to "make sure we're all in agreement that we need to make some real progress".

"This is a very important round of the six-party process and we need to really push as hard as we can," he said after meeting the Japan delegation.

With no progress in the previous rounds of talks, the United States has signalled greater flexibility as it enters what is considered a crucial round after the 13-month deadlock.

A change in US rhetoric, including President George W. Bush's polite reference to the North Korean leader as "Mister Kim Jong Il," helped woo the Stalinist regime back to the bargaining table.

Bush had previously lumped North Korea in with Iran and pre-war Iraq as an "axis of evil."

On arrival Sunday, Hill stopped short of predicting any immediate success but said his team was "ready to roll up our sleeves and do our best to make sure we achieve some progress".