In his first meeting with a foreign official since Pyongyang stunned the world with its atomic bomb test, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il held talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao's envoy in Pyongyang on Thursday last week.

China's foreign ministry, giving the most expansive briefing yet of the meeting, said Tuesday that Kim had told envoy Tang Jiaxuan that North Korea was not planning a second blast.

However Kim also reportedly warned that further, but unspecified action, might follow if the international community continued to heap pressure on North Korea in reaction to the first blast.

"He (Kim) expressed that North Korea does not have a plan for a second nuclear test," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.

"But if others put further pressure or unfair pressure (on the country), then North Korea may possibly take further measures."

The October 9 blast triggered global outrage and led to sweeping UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea.

Some press reports from South Korea said Kim had expressed some form of regret for his nation's actions, but Liu dismissed the speculation. "I have not heard of Kim Jong-Il apologising," he said.

Liu also said Kim had reiterated his stance that Pyongyang would not return to talks on its nuclear ambitions until the United States lifted financial sanctions imposed last year for alleged money-laundering and counterfeiting.

"They expressed to us their willingness to return to the six-party talks but there are certain conditions," spokesman Liu Jianchao said.

"They are willing to return, but these questions, including financial sanctions, need to be solved."

Returning to the talks -- which have been stalled since North Korea walked out in November last year -- is a key plank of the UN resolution imposed on the nation for conducting its nuclear test.

Japan and Russia, both parties to the six-nation talks, called separately on Tuesday for North Korea to rejoin the diplomatic forum.

"We firmly called on the North Korean side to maintain maximum restraint and return to the negotiating table," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Saint Petersburg.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso rejected North Korea's demand that Washington lift the financial sanctions in return for returning to the talks, which China hosts and also includes the United States and South Korea.

"The US financial sanctions are a totally different thing from the six-party talks," Aso told reporters.

"The US sanctions are based on its domestic laws which have nothing to do with the six-way talks."

All six sides agreed a deal in September last year on ending the North's nuclear program in return for Pyongang receiving economic benefits and security guarantees.

But the deal fell apart when North Korea walked out in protest at the financial sanctions.

Meanwhile, Vitit Muntarbhorn, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, warned that the critical food situation in the impoverished country would likely worsen because of the nuclear crisis.

"There is a critical food shortage also compounded by disastrous floods in July and August," Muntarbhorn told a news conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

He said the food crisis was further complicated by the North Korean missile tests in July and this month's nuclear blast, both of which he described as "a serious waste" of resources.

"The resources spent on arms would have been better spent satisfying the food security (of North Koreans)," said Muntarbhorn, a Thai law professor.

Chinese spokesman Liu said Tuesday that China, the North's closest ally and by far its biggest aid donor, had no intention of scaling back its humanitarian program to its neighbour.

"Supplying the North Korean people with aid to help them overcome some difficulties has all along been the policy of the Chinese government," Liu said.

"We believe this is beneficial to the stability of the peninsula... at present I have not heard anything about stopping this kind of aid to North Korea."

Also Tuesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said he would play an active part in finding a peaceful settlement to the nuclear crisis when he takes over as the next UN secretary general in the new year.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.