Seoul, Dec 04: South Korea's key envoy on North Korea urged the United States today to take a softer stance toward the communist country amid signs that a new round of nuclear crisis talks could be delayed. "North Korea should stop pressing its demands too hard. The United States is also required to ease its stance for the momentum of dialogue," unification minister Jeong Se-Hyun said.

His comment comes as top diplomats from South Korea, Japan and the United States gather in Washington to fine-tune preparations for a second round of six-nation talks originally expected to take place this month.

US officials warned Tuesday that North Korea may be stalling over key conditions for resolving the nuclear crisis and talks could be pushed back until early next year.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, however, played down the idea that the talks had hit a roadblock.

There is "no deadlock in the talks. The talks will take place," Powell said yesterday during a visit to Morocco.

"They haven't been postponed because they haven't been scheduled to begin with." Bureau Report