Reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il arrived in Beijing yesterday to discuss his nuclear weapons programmes just days after the United States urged China for a fresh push to end the crisis, South Korean media said.

Solving the nuclear issue is key to unlocking outside aid to the ailing and isolated North Korean economy, including from China, the secretive North's closest friend.

Kim's trip, cloaked in the secrecy that traditionally surrounds his rare overseas journeys, comes less than a week after US Vice President Dick Cheney warned in Beijing that time was running out to resolve the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions that has gripped North Asia since late 2002.

His special train crossed into China and travelled overnight to Beijing, South Korea's YTN cable television news said. In a sign of the secrecy Kim favours, a convoy of unmarked cars, including a black Mercedes stretch limousine, pulled out of Beijing's main railway station and onto the wide Chang'an Avenue heading west towards the state guest house where he has stayed on previous trips.

Analysts said China's leaders are likely to dangle the prospect of significant economic help before Kim, while reiterating that they firmly oppose a nuclear-armed Pyongyang and insist the problem be resolved peacefully, analysts say. ?Putting pressure on North Korea isn't a good way to do things,? said Korea expert Piao Jianyi with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. ?But we have emphasised all along that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully.?

Kim would meet Chinese President and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao, and possibly other leaders, during a four-day visit, South Korea's Yonhap news and state broadcaster KBS said.

Chinese and North Korean officials declined to confirm the visit. Kim's four-day visit to China would be his first in three years. His previous two trips were also cloaked in secrecy. Police earlier closed the city's congested main road that cuts through the heart of the capital and runs along the north side of Tiananmen Square.

Beijing's main railway station was guarded by military police and a station official said it was closed for the arrival of a special visitor, whose identity he said was a secret.

Economic needs

Kim's entourage included 40 high-level ruling party, state and military officials in a trip aimed to shore up ties, KBS said. Kim, who avoids travel by plane, was also seeking economic aid and might tour the northeastern city of Shenyang or Dalian, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

During his 2001 visit, the leader of the communist North toured Shanghai and was reportedly impressed with the glitz of China's financial hub. ?The backdrop of the Kim Jong-il trip is that North Korea is in a situation where it has to resolve the nuclear issue before there can be progress on the economic front,? said Koh Yoo-hwan, Dongguk University professor on North Korea studies. Cheney came to China last week armed with fresh evidence of the North's nuclear weapons capabilities and pressing Beijing to take a firmer line with its communist neighbour.

China has played host at two rounds of inconclusive six-party talks with the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia aimed at ending the crisis. A third round is planned before July.

<B>John Ruwitch</B>