"Our meeting today demonstrates our commitment and our resolve to ensure that this alliance doesn't just continue, but that it gets stronger," Rice said.

The so-called "two-plus-two" meeting brought together Rice, her Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma for annual talks on bilateral and regional security issues.

Since the grouping last met in May 2006, North Korea rattled regional security concerns by testing its first nuclear weapon and long-range ballistic missiles and China reaffirmed its growing military might by using a missile to knock a satellite out of space.

At a joint press conference, Aso said these events underscored the "uncertainty and instability" facing Japan and he welcomed Washington's renewed pledge to defend and provide "deterrence" for his country -- diplomatic shorthand for placing the island nation under the US nuclear umbrella.

North Korea pledged in a February 13 agreement with the US, Japan, China, South Korea and Russia, to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for political and economic incentives.

But Pyongyang missed an April 14 deadline to shut and seal its main nuclear reactor due to a dispute over some 25 million dollars blocked in a Macau bank by US financial sanctions.

Rice reaffirmed Tuesday that Washington had lifted its objections to the return of the money, but acknowledged that unexpected technical complications had so far prevented the North Koreans from accessing their accounts, in turn delaying the reactor shutdown.

"So we have been willing to step back and give some time for this to be resolved," she said, but added: "We don't have endless patience." "We do recognize that North Korea has continued to publicly affirm its obligation under the February 13th agreement and to affirm its intention to carry through. We expect them to do so," she said.

Tuesday's meeting also included what Aso called a "frank exchange" about a year-old agreement to draw down US forces stationed in Japan, a delicate issue at a time when Tokyo is moving to boost its own military forces and global profile.

Aso said the Japanese side hoped to "further advance the realignment of US forces in japan by giving it a push at the political level".

Under a realignment "road map" agreed a year ago, Washington was to return some bases to Japanese control while some 8,000 US marines are to redeploy from Okinawa to Guam by 2014, with the bulk of the 10 billion dollar cost borne by the Japanese.

There are more than 30,000 US military personnel currently stationed in Japan.

The four ministers also said they discussed pursuing joint missile defense programs, notably to counter the North Korean threat, and to building strategic regional security ties, including with Australia.

earlier related report
Group urges incentives for NKorea Seoul (AFP) May 1 - North Korea will scrap its nuclear weapons only if it is offered a detailed programme of rewards linked to progress and backed by the threat of sanctions for backsliding, a leading think-tank said Tuesday. There are "legitimate grounds" for suspecting that Pyongyang may never submit to complete denuclearisation but "a phased negotiation process remains the only strategy with any chance of success," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report.

The Brussels-based group said the US and other negotiators must offer sufficient incentives and guarantees of regime survival -- with progress constantly monitored given the North's history of breaking international agreements.

A six-nation deal reached on February 13 was a step in the right direction but offers more questions than answers, the ICG said.

That pact offers North Korea one million tons of fuel oil or equivalent aid for declaring all nuclear programmes and disabling all nuclear facilities. But it does not specifically require it to account for existing nuclear weapons, does not mention a suspected highly enriched uranium (HEU) programme and does not set an overall timetable.

A deadline for the first phase -- the shutdown of the Yongbyon reactor in return for an initial 50,000 tons of oil -- was missed because of a dispute over the North's funds which had been frozen in a Macau bank.

The communist state insists it will start moving once it receives the 25 million dollars, which the United States says have been unfrozen.

"The US, South Korea, China and Japan now need to put forth a detailed, comprehensive offer for the second and subsequent phases, and back that offer with a credible threat of coercive measures should Pyongyang renege on the deal," the ICG said.

These should normally be sanctions. But the ICG said military force should not be excluded if the North tries to transfer nuclear material to another country or group.

It cautioned that nuclear weapons are the North's "trump card, and it may try to cheat and hide one in one of its countless tunnels." Getting the North actually to dispose of its weapons may prove to be the hardest part of the exercise, the ICG said.

The report proposed an eight-step process: 1. Verified freeze of Yongbyon in exchange for the funds and 50,000 tons of fuel oil

2. Energy planning in exchange for declaration of nuclear programmes

3. Energy provision if the North signs the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and other pacts and gives UN atomic inspectors unlimited access

4. Rehabilitation and relief in exchange for agreed dismantlement

5. Aid and lifting of UN sanctions in exchange for dismantlement

6. Security assurances in exchange for weapons and HEU declarations

7. International financial institutions open offices in Pyongyang in exchange for HEU commitments

8. Liaison offices and normalisation of US-North Korea relations in exchange for conclusive verification

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