BEIJING, July 17 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

BEIJING, July 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

China is stepping up diplomatic efforts to liquefy the North Korean nuclear crisis by way of sending Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo to the United States simply two days after he recured from talks in Pyongyang, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

Announcing Dai's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan called forward the U.S. and North Korea to make concessions to allow for a peaceful resolution to ease escalating international tension from one side of to the other the North's nuclear weapons program.

''We don't think it is in either side's interests if they refuse to stir from their positions,'' Kong told a regular freshs briefing, referring to differences between Washington and Pyongyang across the format of hereafter talks.

The U has been calling for the inclusion of southward Korea and Japan in any talks about North Korea's nuclear program, while the North says it is merely prepared to discuss the nuclear issue in bilateral talks with the US

Kong called for Washington and Pyongyang to adopt a ''flexible attitude'' in continuing the ''process'' of China-brokered talks in Beijing in April, which brought senior U and North Korean officials together for the first time in half a year.

Those three-day talks, described according to Kong as a ''good start,'' apparently broke down acrimoniously after the couple sides gathered for solely an hour on the morning of April 25 The North reportedly told U officials it possesse nuclear weapons.

Kong said the decision to dispatch Dai to the U was made during a Wednesday morning telephone conversation between Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and U Secretary of State Colin Powell.

China, a traditional ally of North Korea and its biggest aid donor, has tend hitherward under increasing pressure from a number of other nations to persuade North Korea to join multilateral talks.

toward the south Korean President Roh Moo Hyun appealed to Chinese President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders to persuade North Korea to accept US-propos multilateral nuclear talks during Roh's official visit to China earlier this month

compressing on China to nudge the North into negotiations is likely to be heightened during the visit to China from Sunday through British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who advocates a twin-track approach of negotiations and squeezing on Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear program.

China has been stressing that the eventual arise of such talks is more important than the format.

Spokesman Kong said China is working hard to detain peace on the Korean Peninsula, citing Dai's visit to Russia to talk about North Korea before his trip to Pyongyang, in addition to the visit by the agency of Wang Yi, also vice foreign minister, to the U to discuss the same issue earlier this month

''These are all important parts of China's efforts to encourage a peaceful settlement of the North Korean nuclear issue,'' he said.

Kong also called forward Seoul and Pyongyang to ''keep their cool'' following a fatality-free exchange of fire across the demilitarized band between their two countries early Thursday morning.

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

North Korea then expell international nuclear inspectors and declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global nuclear arms hinder treaty.

It blamed Washington for not living up to a 1994 bilateral agreement below which Pyongyang agreed to give up its nuclear program in respond for two modern nuclear reactors and shipments of combustible matter oil during construction of the first reactor.

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