Despite protests from North Korea ahead of the talks, Japanese leaders brought up the issue in addition to its demands for an end to the Stalinist state's development of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles.

Japanese chief delegate Mitoji Yabunaka used his opening speech at the start of the three-day talks to address the abduction issue which has been stalling rapprochement talks between the neighbours across the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

"He appealed for the need to resolve the nuclear issue, the missile issue and the abduction issue," a Japanese foreign ministry official said here.

Yabunaka also pointed to the importance of the multilateral talks to "definitely disapprove of North Korea's nuclear arms development and solve the question in a peaceful manner."

North Korea's response to the remarks was not immediately known, however, the reclusive regime has threatened to take "strong counter-measures" if Japan brings up the abduction issue to complicate the six-party talks.

A Japanese official said in preparatory contacts here the United States has expressed "strong support" for Japan's persistence with the kidnapping issue and South Korea had showed a "deep understanding."

He added that China was non-committal on Japan's demand for a "comprehensive" solution to the issues but that Russia was well aware of Japan's "delicate" position.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's confession nearly a year ago that his agents had kidnapped a dozen young Japanese to use them for training spies to infiltrate the South provoked public outrage in Japan.

Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had hoped to draw a line under the kidnapping affair by extracting a confession from North Korea at a historic Pyongyang summit last September.

But Pyongyang's admission that many of the abductees had since died provoked an unexpectedly strong public backlash, putting pressure on Koizumi to seek a fuller explanation from the North.

Koizumi is seen cautiously seeking a settlement of the issue to boost his chances of re-election while the North is seen intent on using the issue as an ace in eking out economic aid from Japan.

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

Japan is hoping to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines to go into details on the issues but when the talks started it was not clear if the North would agree.

"I hope that Japan and North Korea will hold concrete dialogue," Koizumi was quoted in Japan 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 grievance 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.

WAR.WIRE