South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun and US President George W. Bush met in Washington on Friday and agreed to pursue diplomacy to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

In public comments after the summit neither Bush nor Roh issued threats or warnings to North Korea which has boycotted talks for the past year, and there was no talk of sanctions during the summit, according to the South Korean side.

"On the whole, the summit enhanced the possibility of the North returning to the six-party talks by improving the atmosphere and providing Pyongyang with reasons to come back to the dialogue table," said North Korean expert Lim Dong-Won, who served as unification minister under the former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon told journalists that Bush pledged during the summit to establish "more normal relations" with North Korea if it abandons its nuclear programmes, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Any new incentives for North Korea could be discussed only after the North returns to the six-nation talks, Ban was quoted as saying.

The pledge to continue with efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue came as US officials were increasingly touting the possibility of UN sanctions against North Korea to deal with the standoff.

Ban denied that the two leaders discussed any coercive measures, including a referral to the UN Security Council, saying that the presumption of such a situation at the current stage is of no help, Yonhap said.

North Korea has warned that it would take sanctions as a declaration of war.

According to Ban, Bush also confirmed his pledge not to invade North Korea but complained that he "could not understand North Korea," which would not believe his earlier pledges not to attack the communist state.

Bush also used the honorific "Mr." when he referred to the North's leader, Kim Jong-Il, for the second time in as many weeks. A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said his government had taken "note of this".

Previously Bush had referred to Kim as a "pigmy" who starves his people while North Korea's official media has called Bush a "war maniac" and "Hitler junior".

North Korea expert Lim said North Korea is extremely thin-skinned about criticism of its leader.

"It may seem trivial but the fact that the US president used the honorific Mr. helped improve the atmosphere for dialogue," he said.

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

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

In an attempt to revive negotiations, US officials made a rare working-level visit to North Korea's UN representative office in New York on May 13, but no tangible progress was reported.

Koh You-Hwan, professor at Dongguk University here, said North Korea would rejoin the stalled six-party talks by the end of July at the earliest.

"It is quite obvious that the two leaders took pains to send encouraging signs to Pyongyang. The six-party talks may resume as early as in July," Koh said.

Yoon Duk-Min of the state-run Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security also said the summit had enhanced the chances of Pyongyang's return to the talks.

"More clearly than ever before, the ball is now in North Korea's court," he said.

North Korea in February declared itself nuclear-armed and last month announced it had unloaded some 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, a move that could allow it to produce more weapons-grade plutonium.

The standoff began in October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of secretly running a separate uranium-enrichment program. North Korea responded by expelling UN nuclear inspectors and withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

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