Speaking at his first news conference following his appointment last month, Jay Lefkowitz said all aspects of US links with North Korea had to be assessed to push the hardline communist state to grant human rights to its citizens.

Responding to reporters' questions, Lefkowitz, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, refused to rule out linking humanitarian aid to human rights in North Korea.

"We are looking at a very tough set of issues. We must be willing to look at all aspects of our relations with North Korea and our allies' relationship with North Korea," he said, noting especially that North Korea relied heavily on international humanitarian aid.

"I think consistent with what the president's overall approach is on human rights, and bringing North Korea directly into the community of nations, we have to take a look at all different areas of our relationship," he stressed.

Non-governmental groups have accused North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il's regime of widespread human rights abuses, including deliberate starvation, abduction, family separations, religious persecution, trafficking of women and children, inhumane prison conditions, the use of gas chambers and the likely practice of genocide.

The abuses had exacerbated food shortages in North Korea and led to an exodus of North Korean refugees to bordering countries, especially China, which had been accused of forced repatriation, the groups charged.

A recent report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, a rights group, said food donations to North Korea, estimated at about two billion dollars over the past decade, were not being delivered to the North's most vulnerable populations - children, pregnant women and the elderly.

The United States is a key food donor to North Korea despite a three year nuclear standoff with the Stalinist regime.

Pyongyang considers human rights a sensitive issue and had earlier expressed anger at Lefkowitz's appointment, cited as among reasons for its call to delay the resumption of six-party talks aimed at ending its nuclear weapons drive.

But China, the host of the talks, said Thursday that the talks would resume on September 13.

Lefkowitz said he wanted to "directly engage" with North Korean officials on human rights even though the United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.

"I think if North Korea wants legitimacy ... making progress on human rights is abolutely necessary," he said.

Lefkowitz also said that he wanted to work with the United Nations to ensure that China "lives up to its international obligations" in terms of protecting the rights of North Korean refugees who fled to that country.

Rights groups say Beijing often repatriates North Korean refugees despite claims that the returnees face severe punishments in prison camps, and even death.

The United States had accused China of violating the international convention on refugees, including one prohibiting signatory states from returning a refugee to a territory where his or her life or freedom would be under threat.

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