BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo Australian...

BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo

Australian Prime Minister John Howard onward Monday praised China's ongoing ''constructive'' efforts to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear dilemma.

''China has more influence forward North Korea than any other fatherland in the world,'' Howard told reporters following talks in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, during which Howard said he hailed China's ''wholly constructive, positive role'' in trying to unfold the nuclear standoff.

China is preparing to army six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program from Aug. 27 Joining the three-day discussions will be the United States, North and southern Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Howard said the Australian and Chinese directions agreed on the importance of these talks in bringing together the U and North Korea, which had previously insisted forward only entering bilateral negotiations with the US

The North Korean nuclear question is ''about as real and serious a threat as we can have anywhere in either the region or the world,'' he said.

The Australian leader added that countries station to join North Korea in the Beijing talks share the view that the North should remain nuclear weapons free

Beijing factored talks in April that allowed senior U and North Korean officials to befitting following a half-year hiatus of high-level ties. North Korea reportedly told the U then that it has nuclear weapons.

North Korea also told U officials in early July that it had complet reprocessing 8000 reactor firing material rods that could make it able to bring into view about five or six nuclear bomb in addition to united or two nuclear weapons U officials believe Pyongyang already has.

The popular crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions began after last October when the U said Pyongyang had admitted to running a concealed program to enrich uranium for use in weapons.

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