"At the next round of six-party talks, we will strongly urge North Korea to make a bold decision concerning the issue of the uranium-enrichment programme and the dismantlement of its nuclear programmes," Ban said in testimony to the National Assembly.

He said participants in the six-party talks will press North Korea to return at an early date to the dialogue aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programme now that the US presidential election has been decided.

But the South Korean foreign minister said he had no grounds for believing North Korea was about to rejoin the talks any time soon given the fact that Pyongyang had not shifted its precondition for Washington to change its "hostile" policy toward the communist state.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun will meet with Bush on the sidelines of the APEC (Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation) summit in Chile later this month for coordinating policies toward North Korea and bilateral ties, he said.

Ban said Bush was expected to step up efforts to resolve the stand-off and push for an early resumption of the six-party talks as the North Korean nuclear issue emerged as a key pending issue during the US election campaign.

"I expect the second Bush administration will continue with its foreign policy of giving priority to the war against terrorism and the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Ban said.

"However, there is a possibility that it may give more thought to securing international cooperation in light of the criticism during the election campaign (over its unilateralism)," Ban said.

Pyongyang failed to turn up for a fourth round of six-nation talks scheduled for last month, which includes the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia.

The confrontation began in October 2002 when US officials said North Korea had admitted in a bilateral meeting to pursuing a covert uranium-enrichment programme.

North Korea, however, has since denied running such a programme, and has demanded food and energy aid and diplomatic concessions in return for refreezing an older, plutonium-based nuclear arms programme, mothballed in

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