North Korea to return to talks

North Korea agreed yesterday to return to six-party talks on dismantling its atomic weapons, prompting a cautious welcome from international powers that roundly condemned its first nuclear test three weeks earlier.

Envoys from North Korea, the United States and China met in Beijing and agreed to restart the stalled talks in the near future, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website, promising an end to a year-long hiatus in the negotiations.

US President George W. Bush welcomed North Korea's decision but said he would send teams to Asia to ensure UN Security Council sanctions on the budding nuclear power after the test were enforced.

"Obviously we've still got a lot of work to do," Mr Bush told reporters in Washington.

The other three countries involved in the talks are South Korea, Japan and Russia. A round of talks in Beijing broke off last November after Washington took steps to restrict Pyongyang's access to the international financial system.

"What's important is the countries prepare for the resumption of the talks so that there will be actual progress," South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo told reporters in Seoul.

After the breakthrough meeting in Beijing, Washington's envoy, US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, told a news conference that he wanted "rapid progress" from the next talks, possibly this month or the next.

But he said fully settling the nuclear standoff was likely to be difficult and time-consuming. "We are a long way from our goal still," he said. "I have not broken out the cigars and champagne quite yet."