At a White House press conference Tuesday, Bush stressed his commitment to diplomacy and the currently stalled six-party talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"It is significant that President Bush has confirmed his commitment to resolving the nuclear issue peacefully, through diplomatic means," Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-Moon told a press briefing.

"This will help create an atmosphere favourable for the resumption of the six-party talks."

Bush said he thinks that diplomacy will work.

"It's either diplomacy or military," Bush said. "And I am for the diplomacy approach."

Ban said diplomatic efforts would intensify in June in order to bring North Korea back to the dialogue process.

He noted that President Roh Moo-Hyun will meet Bush on June 10 in Washington and that the two Koreas will resume high-level ministers' talks in Seoul from June 21 to 24, for the first time in almost a year.

On these occasions, Seoul would do its utmost to reach a breakthrough in efforts to persuade North Korea to return to the six-party talks and give up its nuclear programme, he said.

Ban said South Korea remained opposed to resorting to tougher measures, such as curbing the flow of international aid to the North, which suffers a food shortage.

"At the current stage, the most urgent task is to bring North Korea back to the six-party talks," he said. "Any strong measures should come only after international consensus is formed that diplomatic efforts have been exhausted."

The North has boycotted the China-hosted nuclear disarmament talks -- which also include the United States, South Korea, Japan and Russia -- since June last year.

In February the regime declared it had built nuclear weapons and vowed to increase its nuclear arsenal.

Pyongyang has refused to return to the talks unless Washington drops what the communist regime calls a "hostile" policy.