27 February 2004	Friday	06 Muharram 1425

BEIJING, Feb 26: North Korea gave signs on Thursday it was willing to halt its nuclear weapons programmes but blamed the United States for lack of progress in six-party talks in China.

The North, in a hastily arranged evening news conference, fell back on familiar rhetoric and said that if the United States halted its "hostile policy" against Pyongyang, it would give up its nuclear weapons development programmes.

"The United States is saying that it can only discuss our demands after we give up all nuclear programmes, including for peaceful purposes, as it continues with its stale demand that we give up nuclear programmes first despite our flexible position," the embassy said.

"It is because of this that there has not been a breakthrough in the solution of the problems." US Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told reporters he could only comment on the North Korean statement after he had read it.

After two days of talks in the exclusive Daioyutai State Guest House in Beijing, details of North Korean proposals were murky and it was not clear what would be agreed in the next session on Friday. China has said it wants a written agreement, but on Thursday could not predict how it would turn out.

Russia said earlier the North was ready to freeze its military nuclear programme, but not its "peaceful" one. China's Xinhua agency quoted a North Korean official as saying it was willing to freeze all its nuclear programmes.

Diplomatic sources said North Korea also continued to deny it had a uranium enrichment programme for nuclear weapons, the crux of its disagreement with the United States.

During Thursday's round, South Korea, China and Russia offered North Korea energy aid in exchange for freezing its weapons programmes, delegates from the sides said.

Russia said the United States and Japan were not ready to take part in the compensation plan. With the talks heading into a third day on Friday, the six sides were working on a joint statement, the establishment of a working group and when next to meet, delegates said. A Japanese official said the talks would continue beyond Friday if necessary.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said North Korea proposed stopping its military nuclear programmes, but wanted to be able to continue their peaceful ones, a reference to nuclear power plants under construction.

"The various parties welcomed the proposal from the DPRK side for the comprehensive stopping of nuclear activities," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters, referring to the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

South Korea offered to supply energy aid to the North, South Korean negotiator Lee Soo-hyuck told reporters. Russia and China said they were were also prepared to compensate Pyongyang with energy aid if an agreement were reached. A Japanese official said it would not give such aid before establishing diplomatic ties with North Korea.

DIFFERENCES NARROW: Despite numerous unresolved issues, host China put a positive spin on the progress so far. China's Liu quoted negotiator Wang Yi as saying the talks had been "substantive".

"The differences are being gradually narrowed down, and the common ground is now accumulating," he said. Losyukov, however, said there was a "lack of clarity" on how North Korea should halt its nuclear programmes - either by outright elimination, removal or reduction.

The North has a plutonium-producing programme at Yongbyon and the United States alleges it is also has covert scheme for enriching uranium to make bomb fuel, a programme the North denies exists.

North Korea has no fully operational nuclear power plants. A five-megawatt reactor at the Yongbyon complex which experts believe produced weapons-grade plutonium is not connected to electric power lines. -Reuters