Bush said the issue must be dealt with in six-party talks and that he was "pleased" that the Chinese government was speaking out against North Korea's reported plans to test-fire missiles.

North Korea earlier offered the United States talks on its missile launch plans, indicating that it might put off a planned flight test that has raised tension and drawn sharp international warnings.

The number two diplomat at North Korea's UN mission, Han Song-Ryol, was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency as saying the secretive communist state was open to talks with Washington.

But he underlined the North's position that it had every right to develop, deploy and test-fire missiles.

US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton ruled out direct talks with North Korea over the issue and said he was continuing consultations with other members of the 15-member Security Council on how to respond to the North Korean test plan.

"I must say you don't normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles," he said, commenting on Han's reported offer of talks.

Meanwhile UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued an urgent call to North Korea to allay nuclear proliferation fears.

"The impasse on the Korean Peninsula is especially disappointing," Annan said at a UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, where he warned that the world was at a crossroads on the nuclear issue.

"I hope the leaders of the DPRK will listen to what the world is telling them, and take great care not to make the situation ... even more complicated," he said, using the official acronym for North Korea, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We face two very divergent courses," he said, between restricting nuclear proliferation, and a situation in which states feel obliged to acquire nuclear weapons and terrorists manage to get their hands on the bomb.

"The international community seems almost to be sleep-walking down that latter path," Annan warned.

North Korea test-fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean in 1998, and recent reports that it was preparing another test have drawn warnings of a tough response from Japan and the United States.

A series of reports have said North Korea is preparing to test-fire a Taepodong-2 missile with a range of up to 6,700 kilometres (4,200 miles), far enough to hit targets in Alaska and possibly Hawaii.

Japan and South Korea have agreed they must cooperate to prevent a missile launch, while Seoul warned it could scrap crucial food aid to its impoverished neighbour if the launch went ahead.

"If the missile were to be launched, it would threaten the regional security," the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Citing US officials, the Washington Times newspaper meanwhile reported that a US missile defence system had been activated in the past two weeks.

Pentagon spokesmen refused to confirm or deny the report. But analysts said it was a virtual certainty that the defence system was working as a precaution - and as an opportunity to test it against a real missile launch.

A standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme erupted in 2002 when the United States accused it of running a secret uranium enrichment program.

North Korea responded by throwing out UN International Atomic Energy Agency weapons inspectors and abandoning the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In November 2005, it announced it was boycotting six-nation talks on its nuclear programme until Washington rescinded sanctions over alleged counterfeiting and money-laundering.

North Lorea Offers Talks On Missile Threat

A top North Korean official has offered talks with the United States on Pyongyang's plans for a missile test, indicating that a launch could be put off, Yonhap news agency reported here on Wednesday.

"The United States says it is concerned about our missile test launch. Our position is, 'Okay then, let's talk about it,'" Han Song-Ryol, the deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, told Yonhap.

He repeated Pyongyang's stance that it had every right to develop, deploy, and test-fire missiles and that it was not bound by a self-imposed moratorium.

"It is not right for others to tell us what to do about our sovereign rights," Han said. "Some say our missile test launch is a violation of the moratorium, but this is not true."

But he said that the moratorium had been respected in times of dialogue with Washington and Japan.

"When we were engaged in hectic dialogue with Washington and Tokyo for rapprochement, we said we would suspend missile test launches for the time when the dialogue was under way in order to help improve the atmosphere," the diplomat said.

North Korea was believed to be readying the launch of a Taepodong-2 missile that can carry a 1,000-kilogram warhead up to 6,700 kilometres (4,200 miles), far enough to hit targets in Alaska and possibly Hawaii.

Pyongyang declared a moratorium on tests of long-range missiles in 1999 but said in 2005 that it would no longer be bound by it.

US envoy rules out direct talks with N. Korea over missile test

US Ambassador John Bolton on Wednesday ruled out direct talks with North Korea over Pyongyang's plan to conduct a intercontinental ballistic missile test.

Commenting on the offer of talk reportedly made by the number two diplomat at North Korea's UN mission, Bolton said: "I must say you don't normally engage in conversations by threatening to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles."

"It's not a way to produce a conversation because if you acquiesce an apparent behavior you simply encourage the repetition of it, which we are obviously not going to do," he told reporters. "So the main point remains that North Korea should not launch (the missile)."

South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Wednesday quoted the North Korean envoy at the United Nations, Han Song-Ryol, as saying: "The United States says it is concerned about our missile test launch ... Our position is, 'Okay then, let's talk about it'."

But Han underlined the North's position that it had every right to develop, deploy and test-fire missiles.

Bolton said he was continuing consultations with other members of the 15-member Security Council on how to respond to the North Korean test plan.

"What we're doing is what prudent diplomacy requires, which is having these consultations before the launch takes place so that we'll be in a position to respond quickly," he added.

Speaking at a summit with European Union leaders in Vienna, US President George W. Bush also urged Pyongyang not to go ahead with the planned missile test.

"The North Koreans have made agreements with us in the past and we expect them to keep their agreements, for instance on test launches," Bush said.

"This is not the way to do business in the world," he added, saying missile tests by North Korea make people "nervous."

Bush said he was "pleased" the Chinese government was speaking out against any test launch, adding that North Korea must realize there were "certain international norms" to live by.

North Korea test-fired a missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean in 1998, and reports that it was preparing another test have drawn warnings of a serious response from Japan and the United States.

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