UNITED NATIONS, Dec 29: As tensions in the Korean peninsula increased following North Korea’s decision to kick out International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Saturday stepped in, asking all parties “to make every effort to resolve the situation in accordance with international norms”.

In a statement Annan urged the government in Pyongyang “to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and not to undertake actions that could further complicate matters”.

The Bush administration has decided to work through the UN security council and IAEA to resolve the dispute.

A Bush administration official told the New York Times on Saturday that the “North Korean crisis had now taken such a serious turn that Mr Bush would find himself in a delicate position: trying to find unity of purpose on North Korea with Russia, China and Japan _ each of which has pursued a different North Korea strategy _ while working to assemble an international coalition to force Iraq’s disarmament”.

“Clearly we are going to have to deal with both problems at once, and so will the security council,” a senior diplomat told the paper.

In turning to the security council, which may seek to impose penalties, administration officials acknowledged that they were trying to counter North Korea’s effort to increase pressure on the West.

They were also trying to cast the issue as North Korea’s international defiance, rather than a confrontation between Pyongyang and Washington, the Times said.

“We want to make it clear that this is now an internationalized problem, not just a problem between the United States and North Korea,” a senior administration official said.

The NYT said President Bush’s aides insist that they are not abandoning the strategy they adopted in October. Then, in response to North Korean violations of a 1994 agreement, they said they would refuse to negotiate with the government of Kim Jong-Il until he dismantled the country’s two nuclear reactors.

Weeks later, the administration persuaded Japan and South Korea to halt oil shipments to the North. But they acknowledged that the crisis was deepening far more quickly than senior officials anticipated when they adopted those tactics.