ATTENTION -with ASEAN statement ///
Southeast Asia on Tuesday urged the six countries involved in negotiations on North Korea's nuclear ambitions to return to stalled talks and end a tense regional standoff.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) offered to host the talks between North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia on the sidelines of the region's top security forum being held here Friday.

But North Korea raised the stakes ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), describing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is also due to attend, as a "political imbecile" for criticising its recent missile tests.

"Since they are all here, we urge them to get together," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters after he and his counterparts from the regional bloc held an annual meeting.

"As the host country, we are quite willing to provide the facilities. It's up to them."

A statement issued by the ministers said the six countries should "fully utilize this opportunity for dialogue as a means to move forward in achieving a peaceful resolution of the issue."

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon said efforts were under way to restart the talks with an impromptu meeting in Kuala Lumpur but warned that North Korea's participation hung in the balance.

"There have been discussions… that it is necessary for the foreign ministers of the six parties to discuss the early resumption of the six-party talks," Ban told journalists.

"But I am not certain that North Korea's foreign minister is interested in the process."

North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun is due to arrive in the Malaysian capital on Thursday.

"I would stress that North Korea's return to six-way talks is crucial to settling the issue of missile tests," Ban said. "I have proposed the meeting to my North Korean counterpart, but I have not yet had confirmation from him."

North Korea has boycotted the three-year-old nuclear disarmament talks since November in protest at US financial sanctions.

Tensions rose after Pyongyang's July 5 test-firing of seven ballistic missiles in defiance of international appeals. UN condemnation and sanctions followed.

Asked if South Korea would try to broker a US-North Korea ministerial meeting on the sidelines of the forum, Ban, who meets with Rice on Friday, said: "The United States has its own position, so we have to wait and see."

The United States has rejected a North Korean offer to hold bilateral negotiations before reviving the six-way talks.

Washington's top negotiator on North Korea, Christopher Hill, was due to arrive in Kuala Lumpur late Tuesday.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday accused Rice — who called North Korea a "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous" state for test-firing the missiles — of distorting the facts.

"Obviously, Rice made such an outcry in a bid to justify the US hostile policy to pressurize the DPRK (North Korea) with the ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum at hand and draw regional countries into its pressure campaign," KCNA said in a commentary.

It said the North was under threat of attack from "the worst gangsters in the world" after the Bush administration listed it as part of an "axis of evil."

"It was none other than Rice who let loose a spate of such piffle over the launch of a few missiles as part of military training to cope with the US reckless moves for aggression and war," KCNA said.

"This cannot be construed otherwise than an outburst made by a political imbecile."