"A prerequisite for this is a security guarantee for all of the governments in the region," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in a statement.

It was the third time in recent weeks that Russia has floated the idea of providing security guarantees to its Soviet-era ally Pyongyang, a proposal that clashes with the stance firmly taken by Washington.

The United States argues that it has no intention of attacking Pyongyang and that any written security guarantee would amount to giving in to "nuclear blackmail."

The six-way talks are due to take place in Beijing from August 27-29 and are to include North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan and the United States.

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

Washington believes North Korea has extracted enough weapons-grade plutonium for about two nuclear bombs before it froze its Yongbyon plant.

WAR.WIRE