THE US/N KOREA: The White House reacted cautiously last night to reports that North Korea had proposed a new multilateral format to resolve the impasse over its nuclear programme.
"We'll see whether this moves us forward. We hope that North Korea is willing to agree to multilateral talks," said White House spokesman Mr Scott McClellan.
Earlier, the Russian foreign ministry said North Korea's ambassador to Moscow had told it that Pyongyang, until now determined to hold talks with Washington alone, now favoured six-sided talks, including Russia, to resolve the nuclear dispute.
It did not list the countries but they appeared to be North and South Korea, China, Japan, the United States and Russia.
President Bush expressed optimism during a news conference on Wednesday that "we're actually beginning to make serious progress" on convincing Asian countries to share responsibility for dealing with Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, "in such a way that I believe will lead to an attitudinal change by Kim Jong-il".
Mr McClellan said: "Our approach is that we want to see multilateral talks." - (Reuters)