The Asahi Shimbun report did not mention Pyongyang's stance on attending the talks.

Japan, China, the United States, South Korea and Russia also have agreed they would not draft a written security guarantee for Pyongyang at the next meeting, the newspaper said, citing diplomatic sources.

However, the six nations would issue a joint statement after the next round of talks, in which North Korea would express its intention to give up nuclear weapons, the newspaper said.

The joint statement would also say the five other nations were prepared to offer a written security guarantee to the Stalinist state to encourage Pyongyang to attend a third round of the talks, the Asahi said.

Washington has already said it is ready to put into writing a verbal promise not to attack North Korea in return for Pyongyang's pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons program.

Washington's top North Korea envoy, James Kelly, and South Korea's Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck discussed in Seoul Thursday the details of the security guarantee.

Sources close to the negotiations said that a copy of the proposed security assurance could be delivered to Pyongyang by a Chinese envoy later this month, before a new round of talks takes place.

Kelly recently visited South Korea, Japan and China to meet with his counterparts and will also meet with Russia's top North Korean envoy, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov, in Washington this week.

Kelly's trip to Pyongyang 13 months ago triggered the nuclear crisis when he said Pyongyang had admitted to running a secret uranium enrichment program in violation of a 1994 accord with the United States.

Pyongyang denied Kelly's charges but has since claimed to possess nuclear bombs and is reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to produce more.

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