The United States and North Korea are seeking to hold a second round of talks early next month to try to revive international nuclear disarmament negotiations, a South Korean report said Thursday.

North Korea is pushing to meet in Pyongyang but Washington strongly opposes this, an unidentified senior South Korean official told Yonhap news agency.

"Currently, the two sides are discussing the possibility of meeting in a third country," the official was quoted as saying, citing Singapore, Berlin or Geneva as possibilities.

The South's foreign ministry declined to confirm the report, saying only that the North had proposed fresh talks with the United States.

On Wednesday, the chief nuclear envoys for North and South Korea met in Beijing for discussions on how to revive long-stalled six-nation negotiations on the North's nuclear programme.

The discussions between the South's Wi Sung-Lac and Ri Yong-Ho were the second in two months. Their first meeting in Bali in July was followed by US-North Korean talks in New York on the same subject.

On Wednesday Wi and Ri failed to reach agreement but a foreign ministry spokesman said they are likely to continue talks.

"We expect additional talks to take place... because both sides shared the view that their discussions on denuclearisation were useful," he said.

The North abandoned the six-nation forum in April 2009, a month before staging a second nuclear test which brought worldwide condemnation and fresh United Nations sanctions.

Now all sides say they want to start talking again, especially after Pyongyang's disclosure last November of a uranium enrichment programme (UEP) which could give it a second way to make atomic weapons.

Pyongyang has repeatedly called for talks with no strings attached. But South Korea and the United States say it must show seriousness about giving up its nuclear arsenal in return for economic, diplomatic and security benefits.

They want the North, before the talks resume, to halt its UEP, readmit UN nuclear inspectors and declare a moratorium on missile and nuclear tests, according to media reports.

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