South Korea confirmed the shift on Friday, saying it had also been formally informed by North Korea of its decision to accept a US proposal to hold multilateral talks to try to solve the nine-month-old standoff with Washington.

"Russia welcomes the concrete step taken by the North Korean leadership, which opens the way to a resolution of the problem (surrounding North Korea) on the basis of talks with the parties most interested," Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov told Interfax news agency.

"We expect that such talks will begin in the near future," he said.

The talks are due to include North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

North Korea has until now insisted that Washington hold one-on-one talks and provide it with a non-aggression pact before any multilateral talks take place.

Washington has repeatedly rejected both demands and insisted talks involving key regional powers are the only means of solving the crisis.

The United States held inconclusive three-way talks with China and North Korea in Beijing in April and recently issued a new proposal to North Korea, offering a resumption of the three-party format followed quickly by six-party talks.

The US State Department said it was "very encouraged" by the developments and a senior US official said that the talks could be held before September.

The nuclear crisis was triggered in October when Washington said Pyongyang was running a nuclear program in violation of a 1994 arms control accord. Pyongyang then kicked out UN nuclear inspectors and withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And it recently announced it had finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods -- enough to make about six nuclear devices.

"They are very close to having a nuclear bomb -- they told (former US president Bill) Clinton that they already have one," a top Russian official said earlier this week on condition of anonymity.

Pyongyang has said that its nuclear program is needed to ward off any attempt by the administration of US President George W. Bush to seek regime change in North Korea as it had in Iraq.

Moscow has not given any indication why it was the first to reveal North Korea's intention to agree to the multilateral talks.

Russia -- one of the few countries with access to the isolated Stalinist regime in Pyongyang -- has been eager to win a mediating role and expand its influence in the region.

So far, however, North Korea has preferred Beijing as its broker in the standoff with Washington.

"We have some relations with them, but Pyongyang is distrustful (of us)," the Russian official said.

Russia has nonetheless championed North Korea's demand for a non-aggression pact from Washington and Fedotov repeated the demand on Friday.

The talks must set "the goal of ensuring a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and preserving the Non-Proliferation Treaty and also provide security guarantees for all the countries located there," he told Interfax.

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