The offer came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Seoul to coordinate positions after North Korea agreed to come back to the bargaining table later this month.

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young announced that Seoul would be prepared to provide some 2,000 megawatts of electricity to its impoverished northern neighbor -- if Pyongyang gives up its nuclear drive.

"I hope that this offer will provide a crucial momentum for the resolution of North Korea's nuclear issue and for the settlement of peace on the Korean peninsula," Chung said.

"We will carry out this (energy) proposal on our own but other countries are requested to respond by making their own gestures," he told a press conference.

After three years of construction, South Korea would be able to route to the North, which has repeatedly asked for energy and security guarantees in return for dismantling its nuclear weapons drive, he said.

Pyongyang was informed of the proposal for energy aid when Chung met North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il last month, and had also explained the offer to senior US officials.

After a joint economic meeting earlier, South Korea also announced it would give the North 500,000 tonnes of rice, the largest-ever such annual food aid shipment.

Along with food and energy aid, South Korea agreed to provide funds and raw materials to help the North produce daily necessities such as garments, footwear and soap from next year.

Analysts said the South's moves had provided a crucial push for Pyongyang to come back to the talks.

"South Korea is now freely brandishing the economic carrots in front of Pyongyang which it was unable to use before the North agreed to return to the six-party talks," said Yoon Duk-Min of the state-financed Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security.

He noted that South Korea and the United States agreed last month that the North would be rewarded with a multilateral security guarantee, improved ties with Washington and energy aid if it gave up its nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang broke off talks more than a year ago, rejecting the offer then on the table -- which required it to give an upfront pledge to dismantle all its nuclear programs before receiving any energy and other assistance.

The North instead wanted a step-by-step approach to weaning itself off its nuclear program, fearing it could come under attack by the United States. The CIA believes Pyongyang has at least one or two crude nuclear bombs.

The United States has denied sweetening the deal and insisted that North Korea had to respond to the offer on the table, a message US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated in Tokyo earlier.

Rice then arrived in Seoul on the final leg of her Asian trip which included China, the main ally of Pyongyang and host of the six-nation talks. The negotiations also include Japan and Russia.

Under a 1994 US-North Korea accord, an international consortium had been building nuclear power reactors for North Korea. But the project came to a halt after Pyongyang allegedly told US officials in October 2002 that it was running a uranium enrichment program.

The reactor project called for South Korea to underwrite some 3.5 billion dollars, 70 percent of the total construction cost, with the remaining 1.5 billion dollars to be shared by the United States, Japan and the European Union.

South Korea has already spent 1.1 billion dollars on the light-water reactor project, and Seoul could use the remaining 2.4 billion dollars to build power transmission lines and overhaul the North's tattered electric facilities.

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