North Korea also tried to obtain 200 tons of aluminium pipes from Germany but that effort was botched in April 2003 when authorities discovered traders had no permission for export and seized them, the Asahi Shimbun said, quoting former senior US government officials.

The US government knew about this months before October 2002 when Pyongyang's nuclear standoff erupted, the Japanese liberal daily said in a dispatch from Washington.

The daily said the 150 tons of aluminium pipes were capable of making 2,600 centrifugal separators needed for the enriched uranium program.

South Korea's intelligence agency has said Pyongyang probably purchased materials in 2000 to produce the prototypes for centrifuges for an enriched uranium program that would be the first step towards building a nuclear arsenal.

But the National Intelligence Service (NIS) has said North Korea was unlikely to be able to produce nuclear weapons.

North Korea, for its part, has denied US charges that it is running a clandestine nuclear program based on enriched uranium.

In Singapore Saturday, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said North Korea's assumed nuclear proliferation was a global threat but acknowledged that he had no idea how Pyongyang might be persuaded to return to six party nuclear crisis talks.

North Korea has boycotted the talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program since the last round a year ago due to what it called hostile US policy.

The talks also include the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia.

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