State Department spokesman Ian Kelly on Tuesday welcomed "very strong statements" from China and Russia over Pyongyang's nuclear test as he looked "forward to working" with them on drafting a UN Security Council resolution.

He stopped short of saying whether the resolution would lead to some form of sanctions.

Several analysts said chances are slim to none for Russia and China -- both veto-wielding permanent council members along with the United States, Britain and France -- to go with punitive sanctions.

"It's clear that the Chinese are moving closer to the US position, but I don't know if this means close enough," Korea analyst Scott Snyder told AFP.

He said that after North Korea test fired a ballistic missile on April 5, the Chinese signed on to sanctions against three North Korean firms implicated in missile production.

"That does send a signal that the Chinese may be willing to engage with the international community in a broader sanctioning effort," said the analyst with the Asia Foundation think tank.

"But I think it's probably going to fall short of what would be considered necessary to be decisive in changing North Korea's current course," he added.

He said China may agree to financial sanctions against regime members -- as it did after the first nuclear test in 2006 -- but not to oil and trade sanctions that could send refugees across the Chinese-North Korean border.

The problem, Snyder said, is that the United States and China have yet to settle on a "strategic framework" in which they have a common vision for the future of North Korea.

For example, he added, China dreads the idea of North Korea reuniting with a more powerful US-allied South Korea.

Dan Blumenthal, an analyst with the neo-Conservative American Enterprise Institute, and Robert Kagan, a Washington Post columnist, see no hope at all of China and Russia agreeing to sanctions.

They asked what will dissuade Kim Jong-Il and his regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"Isolation and more punitive sanctions would make sense if China and Russia would go along. But they haven't and they won't," the writers said in a column in Tuesday's Washington Post.

"Beijing is content to live with a nuclear and anti-Western North Korea," the pair wrote.

"While China fears a collapsed North that would flood its struggling northeast with refugees, it also fears a united, democratic, prosperous Korea allied with the United States," they added.

Washington has little choice but to wait until Kim, who reportedly suffered a stroke last August, is succeeded by a leader who "can make the strategic decision to abandon the nuclear weapons program," the analysts said.

They also recommended in the short run that Washington bolster US and allied missile defense and deterrent capabilities, increase multilateral efforts to stop North Korean proliferation, and bolt the six-party nuclear talks.

Kelly said the Obama administration still aimed to return to the nuclear disarmament talks that involve the two Koreas, China, the United States, Russia and Japan, even if the prospect appeared remote.

Apart from the North Korean, Clinton has spoken with all her counterparts in the six-way talks, including Yang Jiechi of China and Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Kelly said.

In her conversation with Lavrov, Clinton "reiterated the importance of a quick, unified response to North Korea's provocative action," Kelly told reporters.

A foreign ministry source in Russia, which this month chairs the Security Council, said his government would support firm UN action but ruled out what he called a blockade or isolation.

earlier related report
Asia-Europe ministers agree on NKorea, Myanmar: statement
Asian and European foreign ministers on Tuesday jointly condemned a nuclear test by North Korea and called for the release of Myanmar's prisoners, with reference to its detained opposition leader.

Delegates said the two issues vaulted to the top of the agenda during two days of wide-ranging talks by the Asia-Europe (ASEM) foreign ministers and their deputies.

"Ministers condemn the underground nuclear test conducted by the DPRK (North Korea) on May 25th, 2009," said a statement issued at the conclusion of the ASEM meeting.

It described Monday's test as a "clear violation" of six-party agreements and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

"Ministers strongly urge the DPRK not to conduct any further nuclear test," and to comply fully with Security Council resolutions, the statement said.

The ministers reaffirmed their support for the six-nation talks to seek early and verifiable denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula in a peaceful manner, "and call on DPRK to immediately return to the six-party talks".

ASEM groups the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with the European Union (EU), China, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Pakistan and India.

Japan and China are also involved with Russia, the two Koreas, and the United States in the six-party effort to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic aid.

ASEM issued a separate statement on North Korea but incorporated its reference to Myanmar in the chair's seven-page statement summing up the wide-ranging talks.

"In light of the concern about the recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, ministers... called for the early release of those under detention and the lifting of restrictions placed on political parties," said the statement.

Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial in military-ruled Myanmar where she faces up to five years in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an incident in which an American man swam to her house.

On Tuesday she testified that she did not violate her house arrest, and only offered the man temporary shelter.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 13 of the past 19 years, since her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in 1990 polls but was not allowed to take power.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the EU presidency, said it was an "important step" that the communique named Aung San Suu Kyi.

Otherwise the statement closely resembles one issued at the ASEM summit in Beijing last October.

ASEM ministers on Tuesday also called on Myanmar to prepare and conduct elections scheduled for next year "in a free and fair manner".

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win attended the ASEM meeting and was "very resistant" to change, said British junior foreign minister Bill Rammell.

"I think the Burmese regime has miscalculated and has been somewhat taken aback by the force of international reaction," Rammell said.

China, a close ally of both North Korea and Myanmar, played a "very constructive" role in the ASEM talks, said Alexander Stubb, Finland's foreign affairs minister.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said there was "a new tone from China on the question of Burma" but in Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry denied any change in policy. It said China does not interfere in other country's internal affairs and "the independence of Myanmar justice" has to be respected.

Before the North Korean test, ASEM ministers had placed cooperation to address the global financial crisis at the top of their agenda. In their statement they called for "further proactive policy actions" to support economic recovery, and rejected protectionism.

ASEM ministers said they welcomed applications by Russia and Australia to join their grouping.

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