A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman, in a statement Monday via the official Korean Central News Agency, rejected the US proposal to give Pyongyang three months to shut down and seal its nuclear weapons facilities in return for aid, security guarantees and easing of its political and economic isolation.

"As far as the North Korean reaction to our proposals ... I would simply say that there have been various sorts of comments made by North Korea through its official media," US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.

"Our expectation is that North Korea will study our proposal carefully. And we look forward to continuing the discussions, the substantive discussions we had in Beijing in a fourth round of talks," he told reporters.

The third round of talks on the nuclear crisis ended at the weekend in Beijing with no breakthrough, although North Korea welcomed a shift in Washington's hardline stance.

Prior to the talks, the United States had insisted that North Korea scrap its nuclear ambitions first, before it would receive concessions.

In Beijing, however, Washington softened it stand and called for a step-by-step dismantling of North Korea's plutonium and uranium weapons programs in return for aid and other concessions.

Ereli admitted "important differences" remained between the parties and we are still a long way from agreement" but stressed that the latest round of talks represented progress.

The US plan was the first significant overture to Pyongyang since US President George W. Bush took office in early 2001 and placed North Korea on an "axis of evil," alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq.

The biggest stumbling block, however, is Pyongyang's refusal to agree to a US charge that it has a uranium enrichment program for making bombs.

Ereli said the United States looked forward to holding another working group meeting with the five other parties -- China, two Koreas, Russia and Japan -- as soon as possible to further discuss the proposals submitted in Beijing.

It was agreed among the six that the next round of talks be held by the end of September.

The nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002 when the United States charged that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons by enriching uranium, in violation of a 1994 agreement.

Ereli also said he was not sure whether there would be an informal ministerial meeting of the six parties on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Jakarta.

"I'm not aware that anything has been definitively scheduled at this point," he said.

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun and US Secretary of State Colin Powell are among 23 foreign ministers from Asia-Pacific nations and the European Union scheduled to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on Friday.

The North Korean nuclear crisis will be among the top agenda items at the meeting of the ARF, the largest official security forum in the Asia-Pacific region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said Paek hopes for bilateral talks with Powell on the sidelines of the annual meeting.

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