Condoleeza Rice warned yesterday that the United States (US) would not allow a stalemate over North Korea?s refusal to return to nuclear arms negotiations to go on forever.

With US impatience rising over the stalled six-party negotiations, Rice also prodded China, North Korea?s biggest benefactor, to use more of its leverage to get Pyongyang back to the talks that have been on hold since June. ?It is true that we need to resolve this issue,? Rice said at a news conference in Seoul after talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and President Roh Moo-hyun. ?It cannot go on forever,? she said before flying to Beijing. ?The foreign minister and I did talk about intensifying our efforts, all of us, including hopefully the Chinese, because we do need to address the problem,? she said.

On a trip to help jump-start the negotiations, which also include Japan and Russia, the top US diplomat outlined what the United States was offering to persuade North Korea to return to the talks on scrapping its nuclear programmes.

Prodding

Seeking to be responsive to North Korea?s sensitivities, Rice said the United States respected the country?s sovereignty and that direct contacts between US and North Korean officials were possible at six-way talks.

She also reminded the reclusive state of a US proposal of economic aid and security carrots while refraining from tough language that has previously provoked Pyongyang. ?The six-party talks are the place that they can actually get the respect that they have desired, and that they can get the assistance that they need,? Rice said of the North Koreans.

The United States ? mainly at South Korea?s prodding ? proposed a package last year that included guarantees it would not attack North Korea and energy aid from the other partners if Pyongyang gave up its nuclear programmes.

Rice?s moves were designed to show Washington?s Asian partners that the Bush administration has done its part to coax North Korea back and now it was up to them ? and particularly China ? to make that happen.

Ban said direct dialogue between the United States and North Korea in the framework of the six-party talks would be helpful. Rice agreed there could sometimes be such direct dialogue. But she added: ?What we will not do is to separate out the United States from the others at the six-party talks.?

Rice reiterated Washington had no intention of attacking North Korea ? an attempt to allay Pyongyang?s fears the United States has a ?hostile? policy against it.

China also has been pushing the United States to agree to bilateral talks with North Korea. Rice met Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing on Sunday, and said she hoped to manage the issues facing Beijing and Washington ?in a spirit of cooperation and respect?.

Yesterday, Rice?s tone contrasted with her branding of North Korea as an ?outpost of tyranny? in January. That comment angered Pyongyang so much it demanded an apology as a condition for returning to the negotiations. Rice has refused to apologise.

In Beijing, Rice will also press China to improve its human rights record and allow greater religious freedom. Rice, the daughter of a preacher, is scheduled to attend a service at a Protestant church in Beijing.

This week, China freed one of its highest-profile political prisoners and Washington opted not to seek a United Nations rebuke of Beijing?s rights record as it had done last year.

The concessions came as Sino-US ties are dogged by tensions over differences on North Korea and over Taiwan, an island the United States is committed by law to help defend.

<B> Saul HUDSON Jack KIM</B>