N. Korea Nuke Partners Could Take on Other Issues.

North Korea and the nations bargaining to rid it of nuclear weapons could widen their talks to energy and Asian regional security issues, the top U.S. nuclear negotiator said Tuesday.

The six-nation disarmament talks have improved relations among Asian neighbors and could be a template for a wider Asian security organization, said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. He suggested the group could be expanded to include other nations and would outlive the current, unresolved effort to take North Korea out of the nuclear weapons business.

Hill, speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was not specific about the future structure or agenda of what is now called the six-party talks. He said a wider agenda is not an alternative to finishing the job in North Korea.

''The more we deal with this, the more we believe in the six-party process and believe in its ability not only to deal with the immediate task at hand,'' Hill said.

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