N Korea denies receiving N-tech from Pakistan

The Stalinist state said that the charges were a "sheer lie" despite a confession by Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist, who admitted last week he had passed on nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya.

North Korea's foreign ministry said the admission by Abdul Qadeer Khan was part of the US scheme to take the high ground ahead of talks on February 25 to resolve the 16-month-old nuclear crisis.

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"The US trite smear campaign would only reveal its deplorable position and will convince no one," the ministry said in a statement.

Washington argues that the Beijing talks must focus on North Korea's covert uranium-based programme as well as on its well-documented plutonium-producing enterprise.

North Korea says the uranium programme exists only in the imagination of the United States.

"The United States is now hyping the story about the 'transfer of nuclear technology' to the DPRK (North Korea) by a Pakistani scientist in a bid to make the DPRK's 'enriched uranium programme' sound plausible," said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

"This is so sheer (a) lie that the DPRK does not bat an eyelid even a bit."

Washington has long suspected North Korea of selling missile technology to Pakistan in return for parts and know-how on uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said he has told Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf he must pull up the nuclear smuggling ring led by its disgraced nuclear hero "by its roots."

Powell spoke publicly for the first time since a telephone call with Musharraf late Friday about the scandal over nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted leaking nuclear secrets to US foes Iran, Libya and North Korea.