Bush,Japan's Abe say need bold UN action on NKorea

TOKYO, Oct 9 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President George W Bush agreed today that bold action should be taken against North Korea at the U.N. Security Council, the Japanese government said.

In a 15-minute phone conversation following North Korea's announcement that it had conducted a nuclear test, the twoleaders also agreed that a test was a grave threat to the peace and stability of the international community, the government said in a statement.

Bush and Abe, who took office only on September 26, said that a North Korean nuclear test was ''unacceptable'' and posed a serious challenge to the non-proliferation regime.

''The two leaders agreed that bold action should be taken toward North Korea at the UN Security Council in concert with the countries involved in six-party talks including China and South Korea,'' the government statement said.

Abe spoke to Bush from Seoul, where he had met South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun earlier in the day for a summit aimed at repairing two-way ties frayed by disputes over Japan's past militarist and colonial actions.

Six-party talks among the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia have been stalled since late last year.

REUTERS PDM ND1846