Asian diplomats had said they expected State Department officials Joseph DeTrani and Jim Foster and senior North Korean diplomat Ri Gun to discuss the nuclear issue outside a two-day academic conference opening Thursday.

But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that "no meetings are scheduled between US and North Korean officials outside the context of the conference proceedings."

Asked about the possibility of an impromptu chat on efforts to resume six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program, McCormack said, "there are no meetings (or) substantive interactions scheduled."

The spokesman acknowledged that Ri Gun and DeTrani, the US envoy to the nuclear talks, both attended a pre-conference dinner Wednesday night along with some other parties to the negotiations.

"They were in the same room together," McCormack said. But he added, "I have no indications that this was anything other than a social event. There was nothing that I would characterize last night as a meeting."

The diplomats were attending a conference organized by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy with Ri Gun, Pyongyang's number two man in the nuclear negotiations, given a rare visa to participate.

His presence sparked speculation that he had come to discuss the six-party talks. The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations but Pyongyang has a mission at the New York-based UN headquarters.

Efforts by the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia to wean the North Koreans off their nuclear weapons ambitions have been stalled since June of last year.

North Korea refused to attend the fourth round of the talks in September after rejecting a US-led aid-for-disarmament offer. Pyongyang has also demanded Washington end its "hostile" attitude before discussions can resume.

Washington has refused to hold direct formal talks with Pyongyang but has, on occasion, resorted to the "New York channel" for contacts through the North Korean mission to the United Nations.

Amid renewed optimism that the six-party negotiations could reconvene in July, some Asian diplomats said it was logical the Americans and North Koreans would sit down around this week's New York conference.

"These are senior, ground level officials and when they are in the same room, you don't expect them not to talk, especially when they know each other," one diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"I think they have many things to talk about, especially when things are looking favourable now," he said.

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