After Chinese officials used media outlets to urge bilateral contacts, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Pyongyang could speak directly to Washington within the context of those multilateral contacts.

"We've ... made it very clear that if there is a need for North Korea to talk with us, they have the opportunity to do that in the context of the six-party talks," he said.

"We hope North Korea will return to the six-party talks at an early date so that we can talk about how to move forward," said McClellan. "We don't believe there should be any preconditions for returning to those six-party talks."

McClellan also dismissed the notion that the weekend comments by Chinese officials to media outlets amounted to an effort to push Washington to talk to Pyongyang separate from the six-party talks.

"I'm not going to put words into their mouth, but I just didn't read it the same way that the reporter in that article interpreted it," he said. "My understanding is what they have said publicly about the importance of continuing to move forward on the six-party framework."

North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have met three times since 2003 to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear arms programs, with the last round held in June.

North Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for last September, citing a "hostile" US policy.

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