The United States on Thursday said it had attached no preconditions to its offer to hold talks with North Korea, and urged the isolated communist state to make the next move towards resuming an "open dialogue."

Secretary of State Colin Powell said President George W. Bush's administration was ready to engage North Korea over a wide-range of issues.

"We are not setting any preconditions right now, I think its important for us to have an open dialogue on all the issues that are concerned," Powell said after meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-Soo.

His remarks followed North Korea's warning on Tuesday that it would refuse to come to the table if Washington set conditions on the dialogue, which Bush froze shortly after coming to office in January.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer earlier said it was up to North Korea to respond positively to the Bush administration's overtures.

"The next step is up to North Korea, the President has made his determination about how to proceed and it will be interesting to see how the North Koreans react," he said.

Bush said in a statement Wednesday he was finally ready to relaunch the talks which he froze after spelling out a tough line towards Pyongyang soon after taking office.

He said he was prepared to focus on improved implementation of a 1994 deal which ended Pyongyang's nuclear program, "verifiable constraints" on its missile development, a ban on missile exports and "a less threatening conventional military posture."

Powell said he assumed talks would start with contacts with North Korean officials at the United Nations in New York.

"We don't have a date yet but I hope it will be in the very near future," said Powell.

"We have to wait to hear from the North Koreans but we will be reaching out to them in the very near future."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Charles Jack Pritchard, an official experienced in handling North Korean affairs, had been tapped to handle initial contacts from the US side.

Han told reporters he enjoyed a good lunchtime discussion with Powell and welcomed Bush's decision to reopen the dialogue with Pyongyang.

"We would like to welcome the statement made by the president last night and we hope the US will engage North Korea in a very meaningful and useful dialogue," he said.

Later, he insisted in an interview with CNN that President Kim Dae-Jung's policy of engaging North Korea had not been set back by the US delay in resuming talks.

"Although there was initially some damage, (but) I think that the his policy of reconciliation and cooperation was not harmed."

Aides to former president Bill Clinton said they fell just short of reaching an accord with Pyongyang on halting its missile program before he left office in January.

One of the previous administration's top negotiators on North Korea, ambassador Wendy Sherman on Thursday welcomed the Bush administration's decision to reengage, and urged the North Korean leader to respond positively.

"Chairman Kim Jong-Il made clear to Secretary (Madeleine) Albright and to myself that he wanted to make progress, that he wanted to improve the economic situation of his country, there are some steps he can take to move this process forward, to give it momentum."

Bush's team has complained that the breakneck pace of the Clinton engagement lacked sufficient verification guarantees.

However, an administration official said on condition of anonymity that some elements of the previous White House policy had been picked up.

"We have carefully considered the approach of the previous administration, some of the elements are useful and important and we have incorporated them into our thinking," said the official.

North Korea has over the past 18 months launched a gradual process of diplomatic opening, establishing relations with a number of western powers.

The drive climaxed with a historic North-South summit almost a year ago but Pyongyang has since slowed contacts with Seoul, angry at the tough line adopted by Bush

(chinadaily.com.cn 06/08/2001)