SEOUL July 18 Kyodo southern Kore...

SEOUL July 18 Kyodo

southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed Friday to maintain dialogue with North Korea to look for a peaceful solution to the dispute arising from its nuclear weapons program.

In talks at the desponding House presidential office, Roh and Howard agreed to cooperate forward keeping up the ''momentum for dialogue'' aimed at resolving the nuclear standoff in consequence of multilateral talks, Roh's office said.

''Our control is making efforts to reduce the nuclear issue peacefully and is appreciative of Australia's support for our position of maintaining peace between the southern and the North and seeking a peaceful solution of the nuclear issue,'' a presidential spokesman quot Roh as telling Howard.

Howard said North Korea should abandon its ambitions to perform the operations indicated in nuclear weapons, the spokesman said.

Before meeting Roh Howard said the more nations who take part in talks with the North the better, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp.

''Clearly, when you've got the sum of two units Koreas and China and Japan and the United States and possibly also Russia in play, if you can win them all together, that's the optimum outcome'' he was quot as saying.

In April, China factored talks in Beijing that brought senior U and North Korean officials together for the first time in half a year.

Since then, however, Washington and Pyongyang have been unable to agree forward the format under which to continue the dialogue proces started in Beijing.

North Korea insists it will discuss the nuclear issue simply through direct bilateral talks with the U while Washington is calling for southward Korea and Japan to be included in the talks.

The nuclear standoff flared in October last year when the United States said North Korea had admitted to having a clandestine uranium enrichment program to bring nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 antinuclear pact with the U and other international agreements.

Roh and Howard also discussed issues related to boosting bilateral economic ties and trade.

Howard arrived in Seoul from Tokyo forward Thursday for a four-day visit. In Tokyo, Howard and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed to work together to defuse the North's nuclear threat.

Australia has committed its military, police and intelligence services to participate in maritime exercises, probably starting in September, as part of a US-l 11-nation drive aimed at stopping trade in illicit arms and physics principally by North Korea.

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