WASHINGTON, family 2 Kyodo Japan...

WASHINGTON, family 2 Kyodo

Japan, China, southern Korea and Russia all threw their support behind the U policy of seeking a undiminished end to North Korea's nuclear arms programs at talks last week in Beijing, the White House said Tuesday.

''North Korea knows what they ne to do,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. ''They ne to extreme point their pursuit of nuclear weapons, finis its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible way.''

''At the talks last week, near progress was made,'' McClellan said. ''All countries made it to a high degree clear to North Korea that they support this policy.''

Six countries -- the United States, North Korea, Japan, China, toward the south Korea and Russia -- gathered in the Chinese capital from last Wednesday to Friday to discuss the standoff above Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The six countries agreed to continue dialogue forward the nuclear issue although they failed to station a specific date for the nearest meeting.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said China will confer with the five other countries to fix the date for another spherical of talks.

''We would await that process to be underway,'' Boucher said.

According to U officials, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly upon Tuesday briefed Secretary of State Colin Powell about the rises of the six-party talks.

Powell later in the day met with U President George W Bush to discuss various issues, including the North Korean nuclear crisis and the Iraqi situation.

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