Moscow, July 25: Amid reports of Pyongyang's plans to declare itself a nuclear weapons state, Russia and the United States today agreed to closely interact in seeking a solution to the North Korean nuclear issue. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and US State Secretary Colin Powell during a telephonic conversation last night have reached an agreement in this regard, Russian foreign office said. "It is wrong to draw lopsided conclusions on North Korea's nuclear programmes and today nobody can assert whether Pyongyang has nuclear weapons or not", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov told NTV channel.

Losyukov did not rule out that the Us-Russia talks on North Korea's nuclear program may be held in the first half of September. The US has suggested to China that the negotiations be first held in Beijing in a trilateral format (the US, North Korea and China), and after that, probably the next day, in an expanded format including North Korea, South Korea, Russia, US, China and Japan), Losyukov said.

"It is important for this initiative that these two talks take place immediately one after the other," he said adding Beijing should now pass this proposal to the North Koreans, and it is impossible to say at this point what their response will be.

According to Losyukov if this proposal is accepted, the multilateral talks would likely to be held in the first half of September in Beijing at the level of deputy foreign ministers. Bureau Report