China urges persistence over N Korea nuclear deal

BEIJING, Mar 3 (Reuters) China's foreign minister on Saturday urged diplomatic persistence as a deadline looms for implementing the first steps of a deal to unwind North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Under a breakthrough agreement signed on February. 13, North Korea agreed to move toward nuclear disarmament in exchange for aid and the prospect of improved ties with the United States and other powers.

The deal gave Pyongyang 60 days to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear ambitions and open it to international inspections. It also required working groups on normalising of US-North Korean relations and other contentious issue meet within 30 days.

Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing urged the six countries that signed the agreement to play their part, but he also called for diplomatic give and take.

''We hope that they will act according to the agreement,'' Li told reporters on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

''Of course, it isn't always easy and difficulties will come up,'' he said, adding that problems should be dealt with through ''diplomatic means''.

The disarmament agreement reached at talks in Beijing, brought together the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia.

At the time of the deal, the chief US envoy Christopher Hill said deadlines should be strictly obeyed.

Hill also said Washington would resolve within 30 days a dispute over frozen North Korean bank accounts in Macau. The US had said that Pyongyang used a Macau bank as a conduit for illicit earnings.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived in Beijing today for talks with Chinese officials that will cover North Korea and other security issues. US and North Korean officials will meet in New York next week for preliminary discussions on normalising of relations after decades of confrontation.

REUTERS SP PM1630