A senior US official said in Washington on Monday that any of US bilateral contacts with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) should lead to the resumption of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

"We would be prepared for, in the right circumstances at some point, some initial interaction that would lead rapidly to a six-party framework," Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Obama administration said it was open to have bilateral talks with DPRK officials only in the context of six-party process, which participated by the DPRK, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia since 2003.

Washington insists that the six-party talks is the most effective way to in the settlement of nuclear issues in the Korean peninsula.

Kim Jong Il, top leader of the DPRK, said early this month that his country is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on the progress in the DPRK-US talks.

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