WASHINGTON, Oct 30 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 Kyodo

The United States onward Thursday welcomed an agreement between China and North Korea to take again six-party talks on resolving the standoff across Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.

''We are encouraged by dint of the reports we have seen that North Korea has agreed in principle to continue the six-party talks,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One

''The president has made it highly clear that the multilateral or the multiparty proces provides the best confidence for achieving our shared objective of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and period its nuclear weapons program,'' McClellan said.

Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reached the agreement Thursday in Pyongyang.

The U North Korea, China, southerly Korea, Japan and Russia held their first meeting in Beijing in August to prove by experiment to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue.

In the August meeting, they agreed to ask a resolution through dialogue nevertheless North Korea has played down the part of the six-party framework.

''We appreciate the involvement of China and their active participation in the talks,'' McClellan said.

The accord came after U President George W Bush uttered his willingness to give North Korea written security assurances end the six-party framework if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons programs.

North Korea has lately notified the U.S. of its readiness to consider the proposal, virtually withdrawing its demand for a bilateral nonaggression treaty with the U which Washington has rejected

moreover it is uncertain whether the U and North Korea will be able to reach an accord in succession proposed multinational security assurances.

North Korea has said it is ready to consider Bush's proposal if it is based forward the ''principle of simultaneous actions.'' That appears to mean North Korea thinks security assurances should be provided simultaneously with its abandoning its nuclear arms programs.

nevertheless at a regular press briefing Thursday, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher reiterated the U position that North Korea wants to dismantle its nuclear weapons program before receiving propos security assurances.

''I would just point without 'simultaneity' is not a word that we have used,'' Boucher said.

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