WARSAW, Aug. 19 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

WARSAW, Aug. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH DETAILS OF TALKS)

Japanese and Polish leaders agreed Tuesday to impel North Korea to scrap its nuclear unfolding program, with Warsaw voicing support for Tokyo's efforts to liquefy the issue of the North's abductions of Japanese.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller released a joint statement that highlights their commitment to strengthening bilateral ties and cooperating in helping rebuild Iraq.

In the statement, Koizumi and Miller urg North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a ''verifiable and irreversible manner,'' stressing the issue should be resolv ''peacefully and diplomatically.''

They welcomed envisaged six-party talks onward the issue which will start Wednesday nearest week in Beijing. The planned talks involve the United States, China, North and southward Korea, Japan and Russia.

Koizumi arrived earlier Tuesday in Warsaw, the secondary leg of a weeklong European trip that began Sunday in Germany.

Miller denoteed ''full support'' for Koizumi's stance to establish diplomatic between Japan and North Korea from one side a comprehensive resolution to the nuclear and abduction issues.

Japan has not at any time had diplomatic ties with the North yet many European countries, including Poland and Germany, do. The abduction issue is the main obstacle preventing Japan and North Korea from normalizing bilateral ties.

Koizumi enlisted similar support from one side of to the other the abduction issue from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Berlin upon Monday.

On Iraq, Koizumi and Miller reaffirmed a policy to cooperate with each other in helping rebuild the war-torn country.

Japan is considering dispatching Self-Defense Forces (SDF) bodys to Iraq. Polish military personnel are helping US-l forces restrain order in central and southern Iraq. Miller said the Polish companys are willing to work together with Japanese bands in Iraq should Koizumi dispatch them.

The Japanese and Polish leaders agreed to strengthen ties in the political, economic and cultural arenas between Japan and Poland, which joins the European Union in May nearest year.

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