Foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Thursday urged an early return of North Korea to the six-party talks.

South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice and Japanese counterpart Taro Aso held a two-hour trilateral meeting in his residence, discussing the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, said South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

The three sides reiterated that the nuclear test by North Korea is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula, the East Asia as well as the world. The three sides confirmed that they will take unified measures against K in terms of the UN Security Council's Resolution 1718, the Yonhap said, quoting an unnamed South Korean Foreign Ministry official.

The three sides agreed to leave the door open for negotiations with North Korea in a bid to resolve the nuclear issue through a peaceful and diplomatic way.

During the meeting, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice assured South Korea and Japan of the US security commitments in the region, the Yonhap said.

It was the first trilateral meeting among the three countries' foreign ministers since October, 2000, when then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with her counterparts in Seoul after her visit to Pyongyang.

Rice arrived in Seoul on Thursday on her three-nation Asia tour. She is scheduled to travel to Beijing on Friday.

Aso arrived here Thursday afternoon for the trilateral meeting.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)