US says no plans for meeting on NKorea in Egypt

WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) The United States said today there are no plans for a meeting of members of the six-party talks other than North Korea in Egypt this week.

The six-party talks gather the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States in an effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programs.

There has been speculation that the five members other than North Korea might meet in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Iraq, its neighbors, major powers and other nations are holding unrelated talks on stabilizing Iraq.

Asked about the possibility of a five-way meeting there, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters, ''There's no plans for such a meeting.'' ''I think there was, at one point, a discussion about whether they would all be in the same place at the same time to be able to do that but my understanding ... was that that's not happening,'' he added.

Casey said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to have at least brief, bilateral talks with members of the the six-party talks other than North Korea in Egypt.

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