Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov by telephone Monday that China will liaise with other countries including Russia to restart the talks on dismantling the North's programme, Xinhua news agency reported.

"China is ready to make joint efforts with all relevant parties, including Russia, to push forward the process of the six-party talks," Li was quoted as saying.

China has always advocated a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and the maintenance of peace and stability there, Li also told Lavrov.

North Korea's foreign ministry said Thursday that Pyongyang had developed nuclear weapons to protect itself against a US attack and had no plans to resume negotiations.

Xinhua quoted Lavrov as saying that Russia showed "great concern" over the matter and held the view that the problem should be resolved within the framework of the six-party talks.

The Russian foreign ministry in a statement issued in Moscow said that the two ministers had "stressed the need to resume rapidly the six-party talks and work out a compromise solution which takes all sides' concerns and interests into account."

"Russia is willing to keep in touch and coordinate with China in this regard," Xinhua quoted Lavrov as saying.

Russia, traditionally considered sympathetic to the North, issued an unusually strongly-worded statement that Pyongyang would have made the "wrong choice" if it decided to quit the discussions.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said at a meeting of security experts in the German city of Munich Saturday: "If the information in question proves accurate, I would say that North Korea has made the wrong choice."

The last set of six-party talks, involving Russia, China, Japan and South Korea as well as North Korea and the United States, took place in June last year.

North Korea however shunned a fourth round set for last September, complaining of "hostile" US policies.

The United States and North Korea have been locked in a stand-off since October 2002 when Washington accused Pyongyang of operating a secret program based on highly-enriched uranium, violating a 1994 arms control agreement.

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