Selected members from all three delegations gathered for less than two hours at the State Department to settle logistics and technical matters, a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, the department's top East Asia policymaker, James Kelly, welcomed senior counterparts for talks lasting 90 minutes and then hosted a dinner in the evening.

The official described the talks as "very useful" in honing the joint position that all three nations want to see a verifiable end to Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"We have been on the same page for a long time; we are all agreed what the goal is," he said.

No final statement was expected from the meeting.

Japan was represented at the talks by Mitoji Yabunaka, director general of Asia and Oceania affairs at the foreign ministry, who was joined by South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-Hyuck.

China confirmed earlier Thursday that it would host the six-nation talks also involving the United States, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas from August 27 to 29 in Beijing.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing earlier said he was optimistic of resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff but warned the talks could fail if Pyongyang's security concerns were not addressed.

On Wednesday, Pyongyang fired off a new demand for a non-aggression pact that Washington has refused to grant and ruled out an early inspection of its nuclear facilities.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov backed Pyongyang's demands for a non-aggression pact as "absolutely logical."

The United States has consistently rejected such an agreement, but Secretary of State Colin Powell last week suggested there may be a way for the US Congress to take note of a less formal arrangement, especially if it encompassed other regional powers.

Powell said Wednesday that the United States had not put forward economic incentives for North Korea to end its nuclear program.

The New York Times cited unnamed administration officials as saying that Washington could be prepared to offer "economic incentives" to Pyongyang, if it came clean on its weapons program or welcomed inspectors.

President George W. Bush has previously said that Pyongyang could benefit from a "bold approach" of economic and political steps from the United States -- but only after its nuclear program had been verifiably snuffed out.

The nuclear crisis erupted last October, when the United States accused Pyongyang of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by setting up a clandestine 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 fuel rods at its nuclear plant at Yongbyon.

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