The acceptance of a six-way forum ended months of haggling over the format of talks to end the stand-off begun last October when Washington revealed that North Korea had broken a 1994 accord and was running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium.

North Korea claimed the forum, to include Russia, Japan and South Korea in talks with the United States and China, as its idea after passing its acceptance through an established channel of communication at the United Nations on Thursday, a US-based official said.

Speaking through its official news agency, the North Korean Foreign Ministry said: "At the recent DPRK (North Korea)-US talks, the DPRK put forward a new proposal to have six-party talks without going through the three-party talks and to have the DPRK-US bilateral talks there."

US President George W. Bush said he was "optimistic" about the proposed multilateral talks.

"We were very concerned about trying to enter into a bilateral agreement with Kim Jong Il because of the fact that he didn't tell the truth to previous administrations," he told reporters ushered into a cabinet meeting.

"So we took a new tack ... to engage China in the process so that there is more than one voice speaking to (North Korean leader) Mr. Kim Jong Il," Bush said.

"We are hopeful that Mr. Kim Jong-Il... will make a decision to totally dismantle his nuclear weapons program" in a verifiable manner.

"We're optimistic that that can happen."

Japanese leaders welcomed signs of North Korean flexibility and the South Korean foreign ministry was pleased by the pay-off of months of tough diplomacy. Moscow's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said the move "opens the way to a resolution" of the nuclear impasse.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was also "encouraged" by the break-through in diplomatic efforts to end the stand-off, which has been compounded by North Korea's expulsion of UN nuclear inspectors late last year and withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It has since claimed it has reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods after reopening its nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang, frozen under the 1994 accord.

"The Secretary-General is very encouraged by reports indicating a good prospect of early talks" involving all six parties, a statement from Annan said.

"This format should enable its participants to address multilateral and bilateral issues of concern to them. (The Secretary-General) will continue to support this diplomatic approach."

North Korea said it was reassured that its key demand for one-on-one talks with the United States was being granted.

Washington does appear to have offered to talk one-on-one -- but only with other parties in the room.

"There is always the opportunity during these meetings for North Korea or any other party to talk directly to another party while these meetings are going on," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

A face-saving encounter the North Koreans could paint as "bilateral talks," could take place "across the table or in the corner or some other permutation," added a senior State Department official on condition of anonymity.

Details and timing of the talks are still being discussed, but a US official said they were likely to proceed in Beijing and could come as early as this month. Other officials have set September as the target date.

Pyongyang claims Washington is intent on launching an invasion to overthrow its communist regime, and has insisted that the United States first offer security guarantees to address the nuclear issue.

Bush has said Washington had no intention of attacking the Stalinist state and has promised significant US and international help once it scraps its nuclear weapons drive.

US officials have made frequent verbal attacks on North Korea: Bush added it to his "axis of evil" and as recently as this week top US arms negotiator John Bolton said the lives of North Koreans under Kim were "hellish."

Bush has branded Pyongyang's demand for two-way talks on US demands that it cease developing nuclear weapons as "blackmail" and refused to offer a payoff for an end to the programs.

Any talks are certain to be tricky and any accord difficult to implement. It took nearly two years to negotiate a bilateral accord in 1994 that froze North Korea's previous nuclear weapons drive.

"When they sit down for talks, that is when the going gets tough," said Yu Suk-Ryul, North Korean expert at the government-affiliated Institute for Foreign Affairs and National Security here.

Washington believes North Korea had extracted enough weapons-grade plutonium for about two nuclear bombs before it froze its Yongbyon plant. Reprocessing the fuel rods could provide enough additional material for around six bombs within months, according to analysts.

burs-lg/bm

WAR.WIRE