Japan has vowed to consult allies in assessing its role in a nuclear deal with North Korea after the communist state reportedly admitted to developing nuclear arms.
"Japan, the United States and South Korea will maintain close co-operation," Prime Minister Mr Junichiro Koizumi said, adding the issue would dominate talks recently resumed between Tokyo and Pyongyang on normalising ties.
"While exchanging information through close co-operation, we will also gather information independently in making our assessment," Koizumi told reporters at his official residence.
He was commenting on a report this published today that suggested the European Parliament had decided to withhold EU funding to a project to supply two light-water nuclear reactors to North Korea in exchange for a freeze on its nuclear weapons programme.
The project - undertaken by a consortium led by the United States, Japan, South Korea and the EU - was based on a 1994 "Framework Agreement" between Washington and Pyongyang to avert a nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said the EU had decided to withhold its 2003 funding of €20 million to the consortium, the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization.
Japan and North Korea ended two days of normalisation talks on Wednesday, the first in two years, without any progress on key issues.
AFP