China has sounded out the nations involved in stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme about holding informal meetings later this month, Japanese daily Kyoto reported on Sunday.

A commercial satellite photo of North Korea's Nodong missile launch site taken on by a Digital Globe satellite and annotated and released by analysts at GlobalSecurity.org on May 24, 2006.  [Reuters]

Tensions have risen recently across the region since US officials said satellite pictures indicated North Korea had begun what appeared to be preparations to launch a ballistic missile that some experts say could reach parts of the United States.

According to sources quoted by the Kyoto newspaper, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei in late June summoned ambassadors from the other nations involved in the negotiations to propose holding informal talks in the week of July 17, after
the Group of Eight advanced nations summit in Russia.

Wu has conveyed the proposal to North Korean Ambassador to Beijing Choi Jin Su, according to the sources.

China, which chairs the six-party talks, has apparently judged that an early resumption of the multilateral talks, stalled since last November, is necessary amid signs Pyongyang is preparing to launch a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile, the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

No further information was available, but the paper said the move was believed to be aimed both at breaking the stalemate over the six-party talks -- which last convened in November -- and defusing tensions over a possible missile launch.

North Korea has refused to return to the talks since November because of a US crackdown on firms suspected of aiding it in illicit financial activities.

Pyongyang has long sought two-way talks with Washington outside the six-party process, which groups Russia, Japan, China, the United States and the two Koreas. Washington has refused.

North Korea said on Saturday that the United States was preparing for a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula and said it would bolster its own deterrent in response.