NKorea talks must achieve progress this time -Hill

BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) Six-party talks aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear programme must achieve progress in the next round, US envoy Christopher Hill said today before leaving China.

Hill spoke briefly to reporters before leaving for the United States on a day North Korea said it would return to the six-party talks joining the two Koreas, Japan, Russia, China and the United States.

North Korea has boycotted the talks since last year and conducted missile tests in July and a nuclear test last month.

''I can't stress this enough, this particular meeting, this next session has to be very carefully planned because we must achieve progress in this session,'' Hill said.

Asked what the consequences would be if there was no progress, he said: ''If we don't have progress, we will have to figure that out when we come to it.'' The agreement to return to the negotiations -- which Pyongyang has spurned for the past year -- was reached during talks between envoys from North Korea, the United States and China in Beijing this week.

US President George W Bush welcomed the decision but said he would send teams to Asia to ensure UN Security Council sanctions were enforced on the budding nuclear power after it conducted the test explosion on October 9.

REUTERS SP HT1500