Moscow, Seoul laud N.Korea progress on nuke talks

MOSCOW, Mar 6 (Reuters) Russia and South Korea hailed today Pyongyang's steps to continue six-party talks on its nuclear programme and Moscow stressed North Korea must honour a February disarmament deal to obtain aid.

Four months after its first nuclear test, the reclusive state agreed on February 13 to shut down the reactor at the heart of its nuclear programme and grant access to international inspectors in return for 300 million dollar worth of aid.

Yesterday, US and North Korean officials held talks in New York -- the highest-level meeting on American soil since 2000 -- to restore diplomatic ties as part of the disarmament-for-aid agreement.

''We have expressed our satisfaction that it has become possible to unblock the talks on the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula and achieve first, albeit very modest, results,'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after meeting his South Korean counterpart Song Min-soon.

''We have agreed to coordinate our actions within the six-party process to implement as fast and efficiently as possible the February deals and make the dialogue irreversible to allow us to solve this acute international issue.'' Song, who had also discussed joint energy and transport projects with Lavrov, said: ''We shared the view that work on the February 13 agreements is proceeding according to plan and that the process of the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula is exactly in line with our bilateral interests.'' REUTERS SP KP2246