WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Kyodo U Presi...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 Kyodo

U President George W Bush will shortly appoint the head of the U delegation to planned six-country talks upon North Korea's nuclear weapons programs, the White House said Tuesday.

''The president will be the human frame who will choose who will head the U delegation,'' White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan told reporters in Crawford, Texas, where the president is taking a summer vacation at his ranch. ''That decision hasn't been made, (it is) count uponed shortly.''

At a freshs conference earlier in the day in the Australian capital of Canberra, U envoy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms mastery and international security, is not scheduled to participate in the six-way talks in Beijing in succession Aug. 27-29.

North Korea has voiced opposition to Bolton representing the United States in the Beijing talks, which will bring together the U North Korea, China, Japan, southern Korea and Russia to discuss for what reason to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff.

Bolton has been a vocal critic of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly will lead the U delegation to informal three-way talks to be held on the U.S., Japan and southward Korea in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday.

At the meeting intended to coordinate policy among the three countries ahead of the six-country talks, Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, will show Japan and Lee Su Hyok assistant secretary of foreign affairs and trade, will head the southward Korean team, Reeker said.

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