BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo (EDS: ADDI...

BEIJING, Aug. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING QUOTES)

Australian Prime Minister John Howard forward Monday praised China's ongoing ''constructive'' efforts to find a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear dilemma and said ''no fatherland is more important than China'' when it arrives to influencing North Korea.

''The Chinese be entitled to great credit for the leadership they have displayed,'' Howard told reporters after talks with President Hu Jintao, referring to China preparation to legion six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program upon Aug. 27-29 among the United States, North and southern Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

Earlier in the day, at a pres conversation following talks with Premier Wen Jiabao, Howard hailed China's ''wholly constructive, positive role'' in trying to explain the nuclear standoff and noted that China ''has more influence onward North Korea than any other home in the world.''

He said the Australian and Chinese rules agreed on the importance of the six-party 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 riddle 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 appoint 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 engage 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 give rise to about five or six nuclear bomb in addition to undivided or two nuclear weapons U officials believe Pyongyang already has.

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

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group