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Putin sees scope for projects with Nth Korea

Russian President Vladimir Putin says drawing North Korea into large-scale development projects is a way of helping to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula.

Mr Putin has held a bilateral summit with South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.

He says it would be "genuinely realistic" to widen the warming Russian-South Korean relationship to include North Korea in some fields.

"It can become cooperation in a three-sided format: Russia, South Korea and North Korea, in the areas of energy and transport," Mr Putin said.

"Such cooperation would be not only economically profitable but would also help build confidence on the Korean peninsula."

He did not name specific projects, but senior Russian officials have talked about plans to tie a trans-Korean railway line linking North and South Korea to Russia's trans-Siberian railway.

This would provide an easy new channel for deliveries of gas and oil from Russia to South Korea.

It would also provide South Korea with an export route to western Europe that would cut its current 42 day average shipping time in half.

The Putin-Roh summit took place after two days of a summit of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), which drew together all the participants in the six-party talks but North Korea.

Russia has diplomatic ties with both South Korea and North Korea.

Mr Putin came to the APEC summit looking for ways to leverage Russia's vast wealth in coveted energy resources into stronger influence on the region's political agenda, a goal his North Korean proposal seems designed to further.

"I want to underscore that the kind of joint action between Russia and South Korea that we are seeing today of course serves the interests of our peoples but also strengthens security in north-east Asia," Mr Putin said.

The Russian leader has reiterated support for a nuclear-free Korean peninsula and called for continuation of the six-party talks aimed at encouraging North Korea to drop its controversial nuclear program.

He says the talks, involving North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, are "the most rational way" to resolve the problem.