US special envoy Joseph DeTrani asked Beijing to step up efforts to bring Pyongyang back to six-way talks during his visit to China this week, said Cho Tae-Yong, who heads the foreign ministry's task force on the nuclear row.

"While appreciating China's efforts that have been made so far, special envoy DeTrani expressed hope that Beijing make further efforts to persuade North Korea to return to dialogue," Cho told journalists.

DeTrani met Cho for 90 minutes to brief the South Korean official on his meetings in Beijing on Tuesday.

DeTrani was in China for discussions with Vice Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhou and China's pointman on North Korea Ning Fukui, attempting to kick-start the stalled multinational negotiations.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Tuesday that Beijing was keen for an early resumption of the six-party talks, expressing hope that all parties can display flexibility and sincerity.

"Special Envoy DeTrani made it clear again that the United States, as well as its allies, are willing to take on anything on the table, including North Korea's proposal, and have sincere talks," Cho said.

"It seems that North Korea is now carefully studying the situation. When it finishes this work, we expect the six-way talks to resume at an early date," Cho said.

In reply to a question, Cho said the United States and its allies had never made any official proposal on applying pressure or sanctioning the North for its failure to resume talks.

"Pressure could back-fire and ruin the atmosphere for dialogue," Cho said. "Because of the particular situation where South Korea is in, we have no alternatives but to be extremely careful about mentioning 'pressure' or else."

DeTrani, who arrived here Wednesday, is also scheduled to meet with Park Chan-Bong, deputy assistant unification minister, and presidential advisor Suh Joo-Suk before his departure Thursday.

The six-way talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled for five months since the last session in June.

North Korea boycotted a fourth round of talks scheduled for Beijing in September.

A North Korean spokesman said at the weekend that Pyongyang remained "unchanged in our stand to seek a negotiated solution to the nuclear issue."

He said Washington showed no willingness to change its "hostile policy" and intended to use the six-party talks to force it to dismantle all its nuclear programmes, including those for peaceful purposes.

North Korea will not return to the negotiating table until the lineup of a new US administration following President George W. Bush's re-election is fully known and Washington drops its "hostile policy" toward the communist state, the spokesman said.

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