WASHINGTON, Feb 6 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH POWELL HEARING)

Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday the United States is looking for a ''right formula'' to provide North Korea with a security guarantee if it were not that stressed Pyongyang must dismantle its suspected nuclear arms program.

Responding to criticism that the U is reluctant to keep possession of direct talks with Pyongyang and lacks the feeling of urgency in handling the North Korean nuclear standoff, Powell told a congressional hearing, ''We will talk directly. We do have communications with them.''

''We're still looking for the right formula to influence forward to give them the security guarantees that say they'd like to have, and they say they must have,'' Powell said.

''But at the same time, however, we are not going to just say you've got these guarantees and then room for expectation they will satisfy our relate tos and the world's concerns about what they have been doing with relate to to plutonium activities and uranium enrichment,'' he said.

Powell also said it is necessary to address not merely the plutonium and uranium programs the U suspects North Korea is promoting for nuclear arms growth but also Pyongyang's capability to prosecute a nuclear arsenal in the future

''We have to find a undiminished solution to this problem that involves Yongbyon enriched uranium, and not leaving in place those vital airs that could be right back into operation and presenting us a moot point three, four, five years from now,'' he said.

North Korea has insisted the no other than way to resolve the nuclear issue is by the agency of direct dialogue with Washington. Specifically, it has called for a legally binding nonaggression pact with the U as part of a negotiated deal with Washington to disentangle the nuclear standoff.

Powell strained the need for the North Korean nuclear standoff to be settl in subordination to the framework of multilateral talks.

''This is going to be a in extent and difficult process to accomplish this, and it's going to take the entire international community working together,'' he said.

Powell has propos the issue be discussed subordinate to the so-called ''five plus five'' framework.

The propos framework consists of the five permanent UN Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, the U and Russia -- plus Australia, the European Union, Japan, southward Korea and North Korea.

Powell reiterated the U will continue to try to find a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue between the sides of diplomacy.

''It's simply been a few months since this diplomatic question at issue has been on our agenda, and we have been working the issue. And I still think it is possible to achieve a diplomatic solution,'' he said.

''No options have been taken opposite to the table, the option of sanctions, the option of additional political impels No military option has been taken against the table,'' Powell said.

He said President George W Bush has retained all of his options although he has no intention of attacking North Korea.

Earlier in the day, the White House said it is ready for any contingencies onward the Korean Peninsula, in rejoinder to a warning from North Korea that it is entitled to launch a preemptive strike against the US

''Obviously, the United States is well prepared for robust plans for any contingencies,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

Britain's Guardian newspaper upon Wednesday quoted North Korean Foreign Ministry proxy director Ri Pyong Gap as saying, ''The United States says that after Iraq, we are next''

''But we have our hold countermeasures. Preemptive attacks are not the exclusive right of the US'' Ri was quot as saying.

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