LEAD: U.S. urges more pressure on N. Korea to declare nuclear programs

BEIJING, Feb. 26 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China on Tuesday to use its influence to get North Korea to give details of its nuclear programs and to move ahead with nuclear disarmament.

Rice told reporters in Beijing it is now time to continue with the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

''I am expecting from China what I am expecting from others. That we will use all influence possible with the North Koreans to convince them that it's time to move forward,'' she said.

North Korea has agreed to disable all its nuclear facilities in exchange for aid, but the process has stalled after Pyongyang missed a December deadline to give full details its nuclear programs.

Rice's comments came after she took part in talks in Beijing with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Yang told reporters, ''The Chinese side is in close talks with North Korea and we certainly hope that the second phase actions can be implemented in a balanced and integrated way.''

North Korea says the missed deadline is not its fault, arguing it has disabled its nuclear facilities at the quickest possible rate and notified the United States of the contents of a report on its nuclear programs compiled in November last year.

But the United States has said it does not regard that account as a final declaration and has been urging Pyongyang to submit a ''complete and correct'' list.

North Korea and the United State's top nuclear negotiators held talks in Beijing last week to discuss the dispute, without an apparent breakthrough.

A U.S. Congressional report in 2006 estimated that North Korea may have already produced enough plutonium to make six to 10 atomic bombs.

Foreign Minister Yang also told reporters after his talks with Rice that China is prepared to resume a regular dialogue with the United States on human rights after the U.S. secretary of state raised the issue during their discussions.

''We are willing to have exchanges and interactions with the U.S. and other countries on human rights on a basis of mutual respect, equality and noninterference in each other's internal affairs,'' he said.

International rights groups have strongly criticized China's human rights records, saying any political opposition is crushed, dissidents are regularly detained on spurious national security charges and the media and Internet are tightly controlled by the government.

China's denies the allegations.

Yang said, ''The Chinese people enjoy the full extent of human rights and religious freedom.''

After Rice mentioned she would be having lunch with Yang, he appeared to touch on the recent controversies over the safety of Chinese food, saying, ''Chinese food is safe and delicious.''

The U.S. secretary of state attended the inauguration of South Korea's new President Lee Myung Bak in Seoul on Monday.

She is to fly to Tokyo for talks with government leaders there Wednesday.

The Japanese government says she will discuss strengthening the bilateral alliance amid outrage over alleged crimes by U.S. servicemen, cooperation on North Korean affairs, and the Group of Eight summit that Japan is hosting in July.

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