Beijing, July 22: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today the world needs a clearer set of rules to deal with 'rogue states' like North Korea while indicating that a new round of trilateral talks were likely "within the next few weeks". "I think there is a sense of urgency," he told British reporters late yesterday when asked about the nuclear standoff after meeting China's leaders. "There have been talks just recently between china, America and North Korea. There is a desire then to have further talks, I think you will find within the next few weeks, to reconvene those talks." China hosted a first round of talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions in April and has been trying to broker a second round amid claims Pyongyang has finished processing 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, enough to make about six nuclear devices.

The United States wants multilateral talks that also bring South Korea, China and Japan to the table.

Pyongyang's hardline stalinist regime prefers one-on-one bargaining with Washington, although there are growing signs that the hermit state may respond to calls for multilateral talks to end the nine-month-old nuclear stand-off which began in October last year.

Blair said the talks must be extended to include South Korea and Japan.

"And I believe, as I said earlier, that that has got to be extended to include Japan and South Korea, at least at some stage of the process," he said. Bureau Report