China wants North Korea talks next week -media

SEOUL, July 10 (Reuters) China wants to resume talks on ending North Korea's nuclear arms programme next week, media said today, with a session likely to coincide with Pyongyang starting to shut its reactor and weapons-grade plutonium source.

China, which has hosted all the previous sessions, will propose a session among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States that will last for two or three days from July 18, South Korea's Yonhap news agency and Japan's Kyodo news agency cited diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying.

China itself said it was seeking a meeting of the heads of the six parties in mid-July but that no date had been set.

''China is in close coordination with the other parties,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.

Under a Feb 13 deal, Pyongyang pledged to shut its antiquated Yongbyon reactor and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency back into the country in exchange for 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil supplied by Seoul.

A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said last week that the North was considering suspending operations at its nuclear facilities as soon as the first shipment -- due to leave Seoul on Thursday -- reaches its ports.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said he could not confirm there would be a six-party meeting next week but US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill would leave Washington on Thursday for ''consultations in the region.'' Hill, who leads the US delegation to six-party talks, will be in Tokyo Friday to Sunday, in Seoul Sunday to today, and in Beijing from today evening, Casey said.

''If there were to be such a round of six-party talks, he would, of course, just coincidentally, happen to be there,'' Casey said, saying it was up to the Chinese government to make any announcements about six-party talks.

The US spokesman declined to say whether Washington would insist North Korea begin to shut down Yongbyon before holding another round of six-party talks.

On Monday in Vienna, the IAEA's governing body agreed to send monitors to North Korea ''within a week or two'' to verify the shutdown.

It would be the first IAEA mission in the reclusive state since it expelled IAEA inspectors in 2002 after Washington accused it of a clandestine effort to enrich uranium for bombs.

REUTERS SYU VV2220