The United States has refused to provide such a guarantee, saying it has no plans to attack North Korea and therefore no need to make the written pledge.

"It is necessary to provide a security guaruntee for the states in the region, including North Korea," Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov told ITAR-TASS news agency.

Russia is one of the few countries to have contact with the Stalinist leadership in Pyongyang and has been attempting to step in to mediate the nuclear standoff between the United States and North Korea.

Fedotov also urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and re-join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Yet he reserved most of his words for Washington, saying the players involved in the crisis "must look on the complicated humanitarian and economic problems with understanding."

North Korea withdrew from the treaty and reactivated a reactor capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium late last year after the United States accused it of developing a secret nuclear program and stopped its fuel shipments to the energy-starved country.

Russian and South Korean officials have said that further talks on the crisis could be launched as early as next month or September.

The United States has been pushing for expanded multilateral talks to include Japan and South Korea while Pyongyang maintains that the nuclear crisis is a bilateral matter between itself and Washington.

The last talks on the crisis were hosted by China in April.

WAR.WIRE