Moreover, "there will be no secrets," although the six-party format of the talks may provide opportunities for one-on-one exchanges, Powell told selected US media outlets in a private interview released by the State Department on Sunday.

"There will certainly be an opportunity at a six party-meeting for them to say something directly to us if they choose to do so," Powell said of Pyongyang, which had insisted on bilateral talks until agreeing to a larger format Friday.

The talks -- at a time and venue still to be decided -- will include North Korea, the United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.

"There will be no secrets," Powell told his interviewers Friday. "Anything the North Koreans say to us will be shared with our friends and partners, because this is going to be an open, transparent process."

He ruled out the non-aggression pact which Kim Jong-Il's government has demanded, while remaining vague on what Washington might offer the North, and when, as an incentive for giving up its nuclear program and addressing other concerns.

"We're not doing non-aggression pacts ... we, as a practice, don't do that. But there are ways to talk about security, and there are ways to talks about intent."

"All of us are concerned about the plight of the North Korean people ... There are benefits for North Korea for moving away from this kind of activity."

But, he cautioned, "I don't want to ... suggest that we're going over there with a shopping bag and there's a trade -- trading is about to begin at the very next meeting."

"There are a number of issues that have to be solved," Powell said -- among them an illegal drug trade, weapons proliferation and the North's nuclear program. "If we see progress in this set of discussions, then I believe the opportunities do open up for us to help the people of North Korea."

The current crisis erupted when Washington revealed in October that North Korea was running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 accord in which it received help to build reactors for energy production and other aid in exchange for shutting down reactors that produced uranium that could be enriched to weapons grade.

After the United States stopped shipments of fuel oil to energy-starved North Korea, Pyongyang kicked out UN nuclear inspectors, withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and reopened a shut nuclear facility.

Asked about a recent assertion by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that the Stalinist north "is on the verge of collapse," Powell said: "I don't have a basis for saying there is an imminent collapse."

"Right now there is a government there. It's been there for a lot of decades, and that's what I have to deal with."

"Our policy, the President's policy, is to work diplomatically with our partners and the North Koreans to find a diplomatic political solution to the problem."

North Korea signalled Friday it would join the six-party talks after months of haggling over the format, an expanded version of three-party talks with the United States, China and North Korea in Beijing in April.

President George W. Bush and senior officials in Japan, South Korea and Russia expressed hopes that the talks -- likely to take place in the next month or so in Beijing -- could lance the poison from a highly unstable situation.

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

Despite the optimism generated by the move, expectations are low here that a resolution to a nine-month showdown is within reach. Analysts consulted by AFP said the best to be expected from the talks is an agreement to meet again.

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