BEIJING, April 25 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

BEIJING, April 25 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH COMMENNT by way of CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN)

North Korea and the United States conclud China-brokered nuclear talks Friday highlighted by means of the North's alleged acknowledgment that it has nuclear weapons.

U Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly and Li fire-arm deputy director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's American Affairs Bureau, met forward the third day of talks in the Chinese capital Friday morning, however the trilateral session closeed shortly, the U.S. Embassy said.

The U and North Korea also held separate talks with China, it said. None of the three countries issued a statement.

Diplomatic sources said the U and North Korea apparently failed to narrow their differences onward the process to proceed with talks aimed at seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao urg the U and North Korea to hold talking to each other about the ''very involved and sensitive'' nuclear issue, adding that the sum of two units countries and China have agreed to use diplomatic channels to probe the possibility of holding like talks in the future.

''The top priority task at at hand is to insist on resolving the issue between the sides of peaceful talks,'' China's official Xinhua of the present days Agency reported him as saying.

''It is not strange to have differences in discussions of major issues,'' he reportedly said, indicating the difficulties the top U and North Korean diplomats faced in finding universal ground.

Meanwhile, The Washington position reported in its Web edition Friday that North Korea outlined a proposal for ending the crisis in the talks.

The newspaper quot U officials as saying the North wants to reestablish a 1994 bilateral agreement subject to which it would give up its nuclear program in turn back for two proliferation-resistant modern nuclear reactors and shipments of combustibles oil pending the construction of the first reactor.

if it were not that the termination of the program would alone take place once the U fulfilled its [i]finale[/i] of the bargain, the column reported.

The U delegation emphasized that Washington would accept nothing les than the without fault [i]or[/i] blemish [i]or[/i] flaw and verifiable dismantling of the North's nuclear program, it said.

Kelly flew without of Beijing early Friday afternoon en passage to South Korea where he is owing to brief the South Korean restraint on the outcome of the talks. He is also scheduled to travel to Japan upon Saturday.

The talks that started Wednesday were the first between the U and North Korea since last October, when the U said Pyongyang had admitted to running a shade program to enrich uranium for use in weapons.

With the couple countries facing off over the North's suspected nuclear evolution program, North Korea expelled international nuclear inspectors and declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a global nuclear arms manage pact, in January.

In the latest sessions, North Korea said it possesse nuclear weapons and has started reprocessing worn out fuel rods, U.S. sources in Washington said Thursday.

''They said what we always knew that they do have (nuclear) weapons,'' said undivided U.S. source. ''That doesn't blow us.''

The U intelligence community estimates North Korea produc common or two nuclear weapons before Pyongyang froze its nuclear tangled in Yongbyon under the 1994 pact.

Another U source said that at the Beijing talks, North Korea also claimed it has reprocess exhausted fuel rods, a step that would allow it to make more nuclear weapons.

The source, however, did not mention any details, including whether North Korea complet the reprocessing of the 8000 exhausted fuel rods stored at the Yongbyon complex

U State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the North Korean claims, first reported at the U.S. media, ''would not advance as any great surprise.''

''We have certainly said for many years now that we fancy North Korea had nuclear weapons,'' Boucher told reporters.

CNN said North Korea's Li made the remarks to Kelly forward the first day of the talks.

U President George W Bush said the U will not be threatened by way of North Korea's ''old blackmail game.''

In an interview with the NBC TV Bush violenceed the need for Japan to join US-l missile defense bodys to counter threats pos by means of countries such as North Korea.

''They're back to the antiquated blackmail game,'' Bush said of North Korea.

U Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U North Korea and China effectively wrapped up the talks a day before scheduled.

''The sides will answer to their capitals and access what they heard, analyze proposals that were lay down by the parties and determine where we will journey next,'' Powell said in a articulate utterance at the U.S. Asia Pacific Council.

He said the U is committed to a multilateral approach to dissolve the nuclear standoff and all nations in the region, including Japan, southern Korea and Russia, must play a role

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