Bolton arrived from China for a three-day stay in Seoul before heading for Tokyo on the third and final leg of his Asia swing.

The undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, who spearheads a US drive to crackdown on North Korean exports of weapons of mass destruction, said he would discuss the effort in Seoul.

"We are going to discuss it because I want to brief our government on consultations with other nations," said Bolton in brief comments to journalists on arrival at Inchon airport west of the capital.

The crackdown, under the so-called Proliferation Security Initiative, is aimed at blocking exports of missiles and nuclear material by North Korea and other rogue states. Washington is also keen on blocking Pyongyang's exports of illegal drugs. Drug and missile exports are a significant source of hard currency for North Korea.

Pyongyang has accused Washington of preparing to mount a blockade of the country in order to bring about its collapse.

South Korea, which opposes sanctions or any other steps that could provoke a bellicose North Korea to lash out, is not among 11 countries who have signed on to the intitiative.

Bolton is to meet senior officials here Wednesday including Foreign Minister Yoon Young-Kwan and President Roh Moo-Hyun's national security advisor Ra Jong-Yil and foreign policy advisor Ban Ki-Moon.

Chinese-led efforts to bring North Korea to the negotiating table for multilateral talks to end the nine-month old nuclear crisis appeared to have stalled and Bolton said he had nothing to say about when such talks would take place.

"They (China) are definitely in favour of holding multilateral talks," he said. "That's what we've been talking about (during his Beijing stay.)"

Yoon, speaking here Monday, said Chinese consultations with North Korea on multilateral talks had slowed down and he said the ball was now in North Korea's court.

Bolton, considered one of the leading hawks on North Korea in the administration of President George W. Bush, said he was intent on bringing the nuclear crisis before the UN Security Council.

Asked whether UN involvement, vehemently opposed by North Korea, would affect efforts to resolve the crisis through multilateral talks, he said: "No. I think it will be complementary. We have favoured (the nuclear crisis) being in the security council because that's appropriate."

In China, Bolton held talks with vice foreign minister Zhang Yesui and said later that China, North Korea's closest ally, had done all it could to facilitate a resumption of talks.

China hosted trilateral talks with the United States and North Korea in Beijing in April, but they were widely seen as a failure.

Recently, Beijing has intensified efforts to broker a second round amid claims from Pyongyang that it has reprocessed enough spent fuel rods for several atomic devices.

The United States favours a multilateral format while Pyongyang has insisted on one-on-one talks, although a compromise agreement that would see trilateral talks later expanded to a multilateral format is believed to be on the table.

Washington has made clear South Korea and Japan must be involved and Bolton Monday insisted that Moscow should also be included, even suggesting the talks be thrown open to a wider audience.

The crisis flared last October when Washington said Pyongyang had admitted having a secret nuclear program in violation of a 1994 bilateral accord, and suspended fuel deliveries to the energy-starved state.

Rodong Sinmun, Pyongyang's state-run newspaper, on Tuesday accused the United States of beefing up military power in line with the "Operation Plan 5030," an alleged US war scheme against Pyongyang.

"The US is pushing ahead with the plan...to mount a pre-emptive attack on the DPRK (North Korea) behind the curtain of 'dialogue' and stepping up the strategic deployment such as transferring its combat equipment involved in the Iraqi war to South Korea," Rodong said in a commentary.

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