THE United States and North Korea held their first face-to-face meeting yesterday at the six-nation nuclear arms talks, and also met separately to discuss US financial restrictions on the communist regime that have been a key snag to the arms negotiations.

North Korea today defiantly proclaimed itself a nuclear power and demanded all sanctions against the regime be lifted before it disarms.

US and North Korean envoys today ended talks failing to reach an agreement on when to resume six-nation talks on dismantling Pyongyang’s atomic weapons programme.

The top American, North Korean and Chinese nuclear negotiators met today, a US Embassy spokeswoman said, amid a diplomatic push to resume six-nation talks.

South Korea today urged North Korea not to conduct a nuclear test, saying it would further isolate the communist regime, while countries launched new efforts to persuade the North to resume stalled disarmament talks.

China and Japan began talks today on a dispute over gas deposits in the East China Sea amid increasingly strained relations.

Negotiators at talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions set to work today on the contentious details of how the North will disarm and what it will get in exchange.

NORTH Korea agreed yesterday to stop building nuclear weapons and allow international inspections in exchange for energy aid, economic co-operation and security assurances, a breakthrough that marked a first step toward disarmament after two years of six-nation talks.

NORTH Korea yesterday said it won’t give up its nuclear weapons without receiving a reactor for generating power, stalling six-nation talks on Pyongyang’s atomic programmes.

North Korea’s envoy to international disarmament talks said today that his country was ready to work on eliminating atomic weapons from the Korean Peninsula, while the US reassured the communist nation that it had no intention of invading to end the nuclear stand-off.

Negotiators from Japan, South Korea and the US met today to co-ordinate strategy for talks this month aimed at pressuring North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, after the North’s leader said a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula was his father’s dying wish.

Negotiators from the United States, Japan and South Korea will meet in Seoul over the weekend to discuss resuming nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea after the communist country’s leader hinted at a possible compromise, officials said today.

Japanese and US officials today focused on how stringently producers should test their cattle for mad cow disease in talks aimed at lifting Japan’s 10-month-old ban on American beef imports.