Malaysia, which heads the 117-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of which North Korea is a member, urged Pyongyang to rejoin the six-party talks on its nuclear programme.

"We, as chairman of NAM, have always wanted North Korea to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters.

"We want North Korea to participate in the six-party talks. North Korea must be persuaded and I think China can play a very big part," he said.

North Korea stated last Thursday that it had nuclear weapons and was pulling out indefinitely from six-nation talks aimed at defusing a standoff over its nuclear programme.

The crisis erupted in October 2002 after the United States accused North Korea of running a secret uranium-enrichment program and later cut off fuel aid to the energy-starved regime.

Hostile policy

Pyongyang responded by expelling UN inspectors, pulling out of the NPT and reactivating a mothballed plant capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium.

The United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan met for three rounds of talks on the issue until June last year.

A fourth round failed to take place as planned in September, with Pyongyang accusing Washington of a "hostile" policy - among other objections.

NAM, which consists mainly of developing countries, was conceived as an alternative to the Eastern and Western blocs during the Cold War.