The February 3-6 talks are to focus on economic cooperation projects including the construction of cross-border railways and an industrial site in North Korea's border city of Kaesong, it said.

But South Korean officials will override North Korean objections and insist on discussing ways to ease the 15-month-long crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons program, according to ministry officials.

"We cannot exclude the North Korean nuclear issue from the agenda because it is the most important issue," said a ministry official.

Though happy in recent years to discuss economic exchanges with the South, North Korea maintains that it will only discuss with Washington matters related to its nuclear weapons drive.

During the previous round of cabinet-level talks held in October in Pyongyang, Seoul called for an end to the North Korean nuclear weapons program while Pyongyang shunned discussing the issue.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when US officials said North Korea had admitted to running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of a 1994 US-North Korea agreement

Inter-Korean exchanges have since slowed down.

The two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan held a first round of inconclusive six-way talks in Beijing in August to settle the nuclear crisis. They are pushing for a new round in February.

WAR.WIRE