"We have no intention of accepting it at all," Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima said.

"The North Korean nuclear issue is not a bilateral issue between Japan and North Korea ... but it is something the international community should discuss together."

Added another ministry official: "North Korea is not in a position to say who should participate the next round of six-way talks or any other multilateral consultations."

Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency, citing a foreign ministry statement Tuesday, said North Korea "would not allow Japan to participate in any form of negotiations for the settlement of the nuclear issue in the future.

"Japan is nothing but an obstacle to the peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue between the DPRK (North Korea) and the US," the statement said. "It has lost its qualification to be a trustworthy dialogue partner."

Japan joined China, the United States, Russia and the two Koreas in Beijing in August for multilateral talks that ended without resolution of the year-old crisis over the Stalinist state's nuclear ambitions.

"It is only natural for Japan to join in multilateral debate such as the six-way talks ... as the North Korean nuclear issue poses a direct threat to Japan's security," said the Japanese official who declined to be named.

Keio University professor Masao Okonogi said the latest move by Pyongyang "shows they are unhappy with the results of the last six-way talks."

"They must be irritated as there has been no major change in the US policy towards them."

North Korea has faulted Japan for supporting the US hard line on the nuclear crisis, for its continued criticism of North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s and for a crack-down on a pro-North Korean group of ethnic Korean residents in Japan known as Chongryon.

Okonogi, a North Korea expert, said the statement was part of a ploy by Pyongyang "to get more concessions from the United States at the second round of the six-way talks."

"Just before the first anniversary of five kidnapping victims' return to Japan, they wanted to warn Japan against making the abduction issue a high priority on the agenda for the next round."

Japan and North Korea remain at an impasse over five Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s who made their first visit home in 24 years on October 15 last year.

Tokyo now wants eight relatives of the abductees to be allowed to leave North Korea, and is demanding information about other suspected kidnapping victims. Pyongyang accuses Tokyo of breaking a promise to send the five abductees back after a fortnight's visit.

China, Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, issued a joint declaration Tuesday from the sidelines of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Indonesia that confirmed their "commitment to a peaceful solution of the nuclear issue facing the Korean peninsula through dialogue."

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