Russia said Friday that it favoured the resumption of six-nation talks over North Korea's nuclear programme as soon as possible.
"We are in favour of resuming the six-sided negotiations as soon as possible and finding solutions that would correspond with the interests of all sides," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"We believe that if the concerns and fears of all the regional states that are taking part in the negotiation process are truly taken into account, it would create the conditions necessary for restarting the six-sided process and initiating the nuclear disarmament of the region," he said at the North Korean embassy in Moscow.
Russia -- along with the two Koreas, the United States, China and Japan-- participated in the three rounds of the talks aimed at trying to resolve a nuclear standoff that erupted in 2002 when the United States accused Pyongyang of operating a secret uranium-enrichment program.
The talks made little progress, with the final round held in June 2004. North Korea boycotted a fourth round scheduled for September last year.
Friday's statement by Moscow came as Washington and Pyongyang exchanged a fresh round of verbal vitriol.
While US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice accused North Korea of avoiding discussing its nuclear programme, Pyongyang said it would not deal with "such a woman bereft of any political logic."
Rice is on her first official tour of Asia, much of it dedicated to trying to break a deadlock on the nuclear issue and draw the Stalinist regime back to multi-party talks.