TOKYO, Aug. 12 Kyodo Differences ...

TOKYO, Aug. 12 Kyodo

Differences have emerg between Japan and China above how to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted according to North Korea, with China showing reluctance to address the issue as a major item in succession the agenda for the propos six-nation talks forward the North's nuclear weapons progressive growth program.

During policy coordination talks, Japan won China's support for its efforts to melt the issue, but China, which played a elucidation role in successfully encouraging the North to accept the six-nation talks, indicated that the abduction issue should be discussed bilaterally, not multilaterally.

Thus, China's position does not square with Japan's desire to raise the issue at the six-nation talks and also differs from the United States, which has already showed its intention to support Japan in this regard.

''I be impressed that it is an issue between them (Japan and North Korea)...Of course, the couple sides can have the chance to talk about'' things of interest and interest to them on the sidelines of the talks, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said in succession Monday.

Li made the remark following his meetings with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, who called for China's cooperation in Japan's efforts to confirm the abduction issue.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda made a similar call from one side of to the other the weekend in his meetings with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao, in Beijing.

Tension between Japan and North Korea athwart the abduction issue is the main obstacle to normalizing their bilateral ties.

Last September, North Korea admitted its agents abducted or lur 13 Japanese nationals to the native land and said eight of them have died. The remaining five responded to Japan in October, moreover the families of the eight and others believed abducted are unconvinced by dint of the North's explanation.

Li made China's intention clearer in his meetings Tuesday with Japanese lawmakers.

He told lawmakers from the ruling coalition that China intends, as the army nation, to ''make arrangements'' for the bilateral meeting between Japan and North Korea to take place upon the sidelines of the six-nation talks.

Senior officials of China, Japan, North and southern Korea, the U.S. and Russia will fit in Beijing for a small in number days, possibly from Aug. 27 to analyze problems stemming from North Korea's nuclear weapons unravelling program.

Li, however, was quot as saying, ''It would set the host country in a real awkward position if one of the countries broaches an issue unrelated to the (North Korean) nuclear program. We would room for expectation the main focus is a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue.''

China's lukewarm support for Japan's desire to address the abduction issue apparently stipes from different perceptions of security issues concerning North Korea.

China's primary interest appears to be realizing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula as it does not want another nuclear power as a neighbor, whereas Japan is seeking to largely resolve issues related to North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, its abduction of Japanese citizens and detect ship maneuverings before establishing ties with the North.

The Japanese management has been placing priority onward resolving the abduction issue, saying it will not begin again talks with the North upon normalizing ties unless Pyongyang deputes to Japan the relatives of five Japanese who were abducted to North Korea in 1978 and repatriated last year.

Foreign Ministry officials said they welcome China's efforts to factor talks between Japan and North Korea forward the abduction issue on the sidelines of the six-nation talks, with single in kind official saying ''discussions forward the details of the issue may have to be held bilaterally.''

unless they are dissatisfied at the exclusion of the issue from the talks, as an of them have expressed the sense of possible fulfilment that the talks would provide a breakthrough in resolving the issue.

Japanese leaders have been making efforts to obtain support from the international community forward the abduction issue so that North Korea will be impressed pressured to resolve it.

The collection of Eight nations and the European Union have called forward Pyongyang to settle the abduction of foreign citizens in statements they issued earlier this year.

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