SEOUL, Feb 10: North Korea declared on Thursday for the first time it possessed nuclear weapons and pulled out indefinitely from six-party talks on its atomic ambitions, saying it needed a defence against a hostile United States.

The announcement sent out shockwaves, coming when some of the world's largest military powers have been trying to coax the reclusive communist North to return to the stalled disarmament talks and posing a challenge to US President George W. Bush.

"We ... have manufactured nukes to cope with the Bush administration's evermore undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the DPRK," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The statement marks the first time the North has publicly said it has nuclear weapons and is Pyongyang's first response to resuming six-party talks since Bush said in his inauguration speech on Jan 20 that he was committed to ending tyranny.

While Bush did not specify countries, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has singled out North Korea as one of six tyrannical regimes.

"Nuclear weapons will remain (a) nuclear deterrent for self-defence under any circumstances," the ministry said.

Top officials from Seoul, Washington and Tokyo responded swiftly to the North's move to raise the stakes in a crisis that has engulfed North Asia for more than two years, urging it to abandon its nuclear programmes.

"There is really no reason for this but we'll examine where we'll go next," Ms Rice said in an interview with RTL television during a visit to Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency.

"The North Koreans should reassess this and try to end their own isolation," she said, adding that Washington would consult its allies.

Washington recently stepped up efforts to revive the six-party talks, sending an envoy to the region last week with letters for Chinese President Hu Jintao, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.-Reuters