At a news conference in Toyoma, central Japan, Koizumi said the Japanese and North Korean delegations in Beijing are expected to hold talks officially and unofficially on bilateral issues on the sidelines of six-way talks to resolve Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

"I hope that Japan and North Korea will hold concrete dialogue," Koizumi was quoted as saying by Jiji Press.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said separately that Japan had expended great effort to convince North Korea to solve issues related to the kidnapping of Japanese nationals by Pyongyang.

While discussion of Tokyo's greivance would require Japan-North Korea bilateral contacts, Kawaguchi said the immediate goal of the broader talks was simply to agree to more talks.

"I think the success of the six-way talks would be measured by whether we can have North Korea to agree to future rounds of the same six-way talks," she said.

Japan's chief delegate Mitoji Yabunaka put the issue on the table in his opening remarks on Wednesday in Beijing, where delegations from the United States, Russia, Japan, China and the two Koreas have gathered to discuss Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Japanese leaders have warned any economic aid from Tokyo to the desperately-poor Stalinist country will be unlikely unless Pyongyang shows sincerity about the abduction issue.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il admitted nearly a year ago that his secretive state had kidnapped a dozen young Japanese to use them for training spies to infiltrate the South.

Five survivors among the kidnap victims have been allowed to return home but there are growing calls in Japan that their families left behind in the North should also be allowed to leave.

WAR.WIRE