Indonesia could mediate in North Korean talks -Blix

JAKARTA, June 20 (Reuters) Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could mediate in diplomatic efforts to rein in North Korea's nuclear programme during a visit to Pyongyang next month, a former U.N. chief arms inspector said today.

Six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme have been deadlocked for months, with Pyongyang refusing to return to the table because of a U.S.-led crackdown on revenue from what Washington says are the North's illicit activities like counterfeiting.

''It's very hopeful that your president is going to North Korea, and he may well have a mediating influence. The talks with Korea and Beijing have come further in some ways than the talks with Iran,'' Hans Blix told reporters after meeting Yudhoyono.

''North Korea has also come further in nuclear power. They say they have nuclear weapons and they are maybe testing a missile or they have a missile capacity. So it is very urgent that they get back to the talks in Beijing.'' Yudhoyono had to move a planned visit to North and South Korea this month to July after a May 27 Java quake killed more than 5,000 people and forced him to manage relief efforts.

International concern about North Korea's nuclear ambitions has grown after some U.S. officials said at the weekend that Pyongyang appeared to have finished fuelling for a test flight of a missile that could possibly reach as far as Alaska.

The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia agreed in September that Pyongyang would dismantle its nuclear programmes in exchange for aid and security assurances. But the last talks ended in November without progress.

China, an old ally of the North and host to the negotiations, has been seen as key to persuading Pyongyang back to the table.

Indonesia had relatively close ties with North Korea during the 1950s and 1960s under then-President Sukarno and even under his successor, Suharto.

Blix urged Iran to abandon its uranium enrichment programme, which the West fears is aimed at developing atomic weapons.

''The Iranians say that they have the rights to nuclear energy and no one denies that,'' Blix said. ''The only part of the nuclear programme that is proposed to Iran not to be exercised is the enrichment of uranium.'' ''It is for them to define what price would they charge in order to suspend enrichment in future. It is the matter of negotiation and they are in the midst of it.'' REUTERS CH VA RN1409