Reports of an imminent North Korean missile test has drawn warnings from the United States Japan and South Korea, but Japanese officials were quoted as saying Sunday that a test was unlikely.

"The Japanese government has announced, at least to the best of its knowledge, that there's not going to be a launch today and we hope there's not going to be a launch," White House spokesman Tony Snow told the Fox News Sunday television program.

In March 2005, Pyongyang ended a moratorium on long-range missile that it had declared in 1999. It shocked the world in 1998 by launching a Taepodong-1 missile that flew over Japan before crashing into the Pacific.

"We expect them to maintain the moratorium," Snow said.

"We do not want to have a missile test out of North Korea," he added.

The spokesman also said North Korea should return to the negotiating table with five other nations trying to convince Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons program.

"We expect them to come back to the table," he said of the six-party talks that include the United States, the two Koreas, Japan, Russia and China.

North Korea last year said it had nuclear weapons and since November has boycotted the six-nation talks on its atomic aspirations, saying it will not come back to the bargaining table until the United States lifts sanctions against it.

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