Kelly, assistant US secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, opened two days of informal talks with Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the Japanese foreign ministry's Asian and Oceanian affairs bureau and South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck. It was their first meeting since last month's six-way talks in Beijing ended without resolution.

After his arrival here Monday afternoon, Kelly went into a working dinner with the Japanese and South Korean delegations that he termed "relaxed" in comments to reporters carried by Kyodo News agency.

"We had a nice time and a relaxed dinner," he said, indicating there was no comprehensive discussion of the nuclear issue.

The talks were to focus on preparations for a new round of six-way talks also involving North Korea, China and Russia, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said.

Senior officials from the six nations met in Beijing August 27-29 to explore ways to settle the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

The talks ended without a tangible agreement, with the delegates agreeing to meet again but failing to fix a date for the next round.

Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi told a separate news conference that the allies would continue to discuss how to achieve a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue that erupted in October last year.

A weekend report in the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun daily said Japan would ask the United States to state specific terms under which it would provide North Korea with a "security guarantee."

Citing Japanese foreign ministry officials, Kyodo said last week that the allies would discuss setting up a system to verify whether North Korea is dismantling its nuclear arms program, to involve experts from various countries and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Pyongyang has demanded a non-aggression pact with the United States as a prerequisite for abandoning its nuclear weapons ambitions.

Washington has insisted that North Korea scrap its nuclear weapons drive before it will consider offering the Stalinist state concessions including economic and security benefits.

North Korea termed the first round of six-way talks "useless" and accused the United States of refusing to soften its "hostile" policy towards Pyongyang. The isolated nation reiterated the message Thursday with a call for Washington to "buckle down" and resolve the nuclear crisis.

A Chinese foreign ministry official closely involved in the North Korean talks said Friday she saw no signs North Korea would refuse to join future six-party negotiations despite having dismissed them as worthless.

The crisis erupted in October last year when the United States accused North Korea of reneging on a 1994 Agreed Framework nuclear safeguard accord by running a secret uranium enrichment program.

Under that accord North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear facilities in return for the construction of two light-water reactors and the supply of heavy fuel oil.

North Korea has since kicked out IAEA inspectors and withdrawn from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty after the United States suspended fuel shipments to the energy-starved country.

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