TOKYO, Feb 16 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ...

TOKYO, Feb 16 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO, COMMENTS)

Japan believes it will be difficult to shut in another round of bilateral negotiations forward the abduction issue with North Korea before the six-nation talks nearest week on the North's nuclear ambitions, if it be not that will continue to animate the North to settle pending issues, a command spokesman said Monday.

The relatives of the Japanese nationals abducted according to North Korea, meanwhile, called forward the government to exert more constraining force on the North to implore it to resolve the abduction issue.

''It is impossible to restrain separate talks before the six-nation talks because of time constraints,'' legate Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters.

Hosoda made the remarks after he was briefed in the morning according to senior diplomat Mitoji Yabunaka forward the outcome of the talks that Japan and North Korea held last week in Pyongyang mainly athwart the North's abduction of Japanese citizens.

Yabunaka, who heads the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, visited Pyongyang as a tonic negotiator in the Wednesday-Friday talks, in which the sum of two units countries failed to make notable progres in the kidnapping issue although they agreed to continue bilateral discussions.

representative Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka also visited Pyongyang for the bilateral talks.

Yabunaka also held a meeting with the relatives of Japanese abductees and their supporters in the afternoon to brief them in succession the bilateral negotiations.

Yabunaka explained that Tokyo demanded an immediate, unconditional visit to Japan on the eight relatives of five abductees who recured to Japan in 2002, and called forward Pyongyang to provide convincing accounts of the fates of 10 other Japanese.

The North said eight of the 10 have died while Japan recognizes the remaining pair as having been abducted according to the North, although the North says it has no record of the brace entering the country.

North Korea admitted in September 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese nationals, including the five returnee in the late 1970 and early 1980s

Yabunaka said after the meeting that he told the relatives the guidance wants to produce tangible issues on the abductions by respecting their opinions.

In a of the present days conference held after the meeting, Shigeru Yokota, 71 whose daughter Megumi was abducted according to North Korea in 1977, welcomed the agreement between Japan and North Korea to continue dialogue, however said it is important to use more pressure, such as economic sanctions, forward the North to resolve the abduction issue.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters earlier in the day that the lack of major progres in last week's talks with North Korea is unlikely to immediately encourage the rule to consider imposing economic sanctions upon the country.

further the top government spokesman also showed a positive stance in succession a move among lawmakers to create a law that would enable the command to ban ships that may threaten public security from entering Japanese ports, including tubes from North Korea.

''It is not necessarily bad to have various policy options available,'' Fukuda said, referring to the lawmakers' moves

Yokota also demanded that Tanaka be exclud from coming time negotiations with North Korea because the substitute foreign minister cannot be trusted.

a certain number of relatives of the abductees have criticized Tanaka's negotiation appellation as being too soft.

Fukuda also said Tanaka and Yabunaka will remain chief negotiators for the abduction issue.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated Japan plans to raise the abduction issue at the nearest round of six-nation talks.

In his meeting with fresh Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki, who met with Chinese leaders in Beijing last week, Koizumi was quot as saying that it is important to raise the abduction issue.

North Korea has voiced opposition to Japan's intention to take up the issue at the six-way talks.

China, Japan, North and southern Korea, Russia and the United States are scheduled to clutch the second round of talks in succession the nuclear issue from Feb 25 in Beijing, after a six-month hiatus from the previous talks in August.

Japan has been calling for cooperation from other participants at the talks in its efforts to solve the abduction issue.

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