Australia willing to play N Korea sanctions role

CANBERRA, Oct 13: Australia was prepared to offer warships to any blockade enforcing United Nations sanctions against North Korea, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Howard spoke to US President George W Bush overnight about UN Security Council talks aimed at agreeing on tough sanctions against Pyongyang following its reported test of a nuclear device.

Australian navy vessels could end up patrolling North Korean waters and searching ships for prohibited goods if there was an international agreement for a blockade, said Mr Howard.

''It there were for example some kind of trade embargo sanctioned by the Security Council under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, then it would be reasonable for Australia to participate along with a lot of other countries in enforcing those sanctions,'' Howard told Australian radio.

The US-led sanctions push has been delayed until tomorrow at the earliest after China balked at some financial sanctions and travel restrictions sought against the reclusive Stalinist state.

China and Russia also raised objections to a controversial provision in the U.S. draft, co-sponsored by Security Council members Japan, Britain, France and Slovakia, that authorises the inspection of cargo going in and out of North Korea to detect ballistic missiles or nuclear materials.

Australia, a staunch US ally, is part of the 66-member Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), formed by Bush in 2003 to guard against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including through military interdiction.

Howard said North Korea was an ''outlaw country that doesn't behave in a normal rational fashion'', adding it was alarming that Pyongyang appeared to have abandoned its closest backer, China.

''This is something that has to be pursued to the end through the available diplomatic channels,'' he said.

REUTERS