N Korea agrees to include South, Japan in nuke talks

"The format of the talks does not present itself as an essential issue if the United States is truly willing to settle the problem," the North said in a statement Saturday night issued by its Foreign Ministry.

"It is the DPRK's (North Korea) stand that the DPRK-US talks should be held first and they may be followed by the US-proposed multilateral talks...," according to the statement carried by the North's official news outlet, the Korean Central News Agency.

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It is the first time that the North has hinted at the possibility of agreeing on the US call for five-way multilateral nuclear talks to deal with the nuclear issue.

North Korea, the United States and China opened their first three-way talks in Beijing in April to try to resolve the nuclear standoff between Pyongyang and Washington.

South Korea and Japan, which had hoped to participate in the talks, were left out because of Pyongyang's opposition.

During the Beijing talks, the North stunned the world by telling the United States that it already possesses nuclear weapons.

The North's apparent softening of its stance on the format of the nuclear talks came shortly after the summit between US President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Texas over the weekend.

In the talks, the two leaders vowed to take "tougher measures" if the North continues escalating its nuclear threat, urging Pyongyang to stop its "blackmail" tactics.

Japan reportedly welcomed North Korea's willingness to comply with a US demand to include Seoul and Tokyo in multilateral talks on the North's nuclear weapons programme.