The envoys left just hours before US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to press for the Stalinist state to return to multilateral talks on its nuclear drive here.

They delegation is travelling at the invitation of the Worker's Party of Korea, Xinhua news agency said. They will also visit South Korea and communist Laos.

The group was led by Xi Jinping, a member of the communist party's Central Committee and secretary of the party's Zhejiang provincial committee, Xinhua said.

North Korea has been refusing to attend six-nation talks on its drive for nuclear arms for the past year, citing the United States' "hostile" attitude to its government. Rice is due in Beijing late on Saturday.

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