Meanwhile Russia said that it and former Communist ally China were ready to provide Stalinist North Korea with security guarantees at the talks to reinforce any proposals Washington may make, Russian news agencies reported.

In preparation for the talks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov is due to meet with South Korean counterpart Kim Jae Sup on Wednesday, officials at Seoul's Moscow embassy told AFP.

The same day, Losyukov is also due to host North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kung Sok-Ung, Interfax news agency quoted him as saying from Beijing.

There were no plans for officials from the Koreas to meet each other, officials said.

Details of the six-way talks involving North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China, and Russia, are still being worked out.

They could start anytime from August 25 in Beijing, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck said in Seoul.

Russia's Losyukov, who Monday met with Chinese officials in Beijing, said the talks could take place as soon as next week.

He said China and Russia were ready to provide North Korea with security guarantees if it were not satisfied with US offers during the parleys.

"We reaffirm our readiness to provide North Korea with such guarantees, should US guarantees not be enough," Interfax quoted Losyukov telling Russian reporters in Beijing.

Losyukov said the guarantees would not involve military aid. "We are talking about supplementing US guarantees, strengthening them, so that North Korea has more confidence in the US position," he said.

South Korea's Lee said that Washington was close to finalizing a proposal to be introduced at the talks.

"Washington has told us that its proposal has almost been put together," said Lee, who Monday left for talks in Washington.

Lee said South Korea would field its own proposal, which he said is "slightly different" from the US initiative.

Meanwhile Losyukov said Russia and China had "completely identical approaches and views on the situation surrounding North Korea," ITAR-TASS reported.

"The talks will, of course, will not be easy," Losyukov said. "Both we and our Chinese colleagues understand that one round of talks will not solve all of the problems."

"North Korea is being quite flexible at the moment," he said. "We and our Chinese colleagues agree that a positive push toward resolving the situation on the peninsula can come only from parallel steps from talks' participants."

"A situation during which one side presents conditions is counterproductive and will lead to a dead end," Losyukov said.

The latest North Korean nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington accused the Stalinist state of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by setting up a clandestine atomic program.

North Korea then expelled International Atomic Energy Agencymonitors and withdrew from the treaty.

Pyongyang has since claimed to have reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.

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.

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