Pyongyang "will not abandon its nuclear deterrent force" unless Washington met its demand for the pact at the talks expected in Beijing on its nuclear weapons development program, the North's foreign ministry spokesman said.

The talks -- to involve the United States, China, Russia, Japan and both Koreas -- aim to resolve the crisis that erupted last October over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

The spokesman said in a statement released by the Korean Central News Agency that Pyongyang would demand at the talks that Washington drop its "hostile" policy towards the Stalinist state and sign the pact.

Secretary of State Colin Powell this month repeated Washington's opposition to Pyongyang's often-stated demand for a non-aggression pact, but hinted the US Congress could endorse a less formal guarantee.

But the North's spokesman stressed the proposed pact could not be replaced by other alternatives.

"The DPRK (North Korea) does not demand... a 'guarantee for security or for system' as a present, but wants to conclude a non-aggression treaty that would strictly and legally guarantee that neither of the two sides attacks the other," he said.

"It will be considered that the US has practically given up its hostile policy towards DPRK when a non-aggression treaty with legal binding is concluded and diplomatic relations are established between the DPRK and the

He described a US policy change towards North Korea as "a master key to the solution" of the 10-month-old nuclear stand-off between Washington and Pyongyang.

"The US switchover in its hostile policy towards the DPRK comes as a precondition for the solution to the nuclear crisis," he said.

The spokesman warned the United States should show a change in its policy on Pyongyang at the upcoming talks -- which are the product of intense diplomacy by China -- or face a nuclear North Korea.

"It is clear that as long as the US insists on its hostile policy toward the DPRK, the latter will not abandon its nuclear deterrent force," he said.

The spokesman also rejected an early inspection of North Korean nuclear facilities as "impossible and unthinkable" without changes in US policy.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October when Washington accused Pyongyang of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by setting up a clandestine atomic program based on enriched uranium.

North Korea then kicked out International Atomic Energy Agency monitors and withdrew from the treaty. Pyongyang has since claimed to have reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods at its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.

North Korea has said it needs a nuclear arsenal to defend itself from an attack by the United States.

Pyongyang had insisted on one-on-one talks with Washington to resolve the crisis, but in a turnaround this month the isolated hermit state agreed to six-way talks.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Tuesday the talks would begin in Beijing on August 27 but China has not confirmed the date.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrived in Seoul meanwhile Wednesday to meet his South Korean counterpart Yoon Young-Kwan about the upcoming meeting.

And Russia, one of North Korea's few allies, held separate warm-up meetings with the two Koreas in Moscow to "develop mutual trust" ahead of the China meeting, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Losyukov said.

"We plan to find out the moods in Pyongyang and Seoul and what ideas they present at the multi-lateral talks," Losyukov told ITAR-TASS news agency before meeting top Korean officials.

Few analysts expected a breakthrough at the six-way talks.

"Multilateral negotiations allow Pyongyang to see differences among the attending parties and play them against each other," said Gerrit Gong from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a US-based think-tank.

"I expect the North to be coy, even perhaps to walk away at the last minute in an effort to keep raising the stakes."

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