The two held their first telephone talks since Ban, who was South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun's chief foreign policy aide, was named foreign minister on Friday.

"We would like to cooperate closely for the sake of the peace and prosperity of the region, including a peaceful resolution of North Korea's nuclear problem," Kawaguchi told Ban, according to the Japanese foreign ministry.

Ban said he wanted to maintain the close three-way cooperation among South Korea, Japan and the United States "in order to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully."

The two agreed to meet at the earliest opportunity to exchange views over the North Korean issue, the ministry added.

Efforts are under way to engineer the resumption of talks on the crisis among six countries -- China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States, after an inconclusive first round in Beijing in August.

The second round of talks was expected to take place in December but never happened.

WAR.WIRE