The United States and South Korea  vowed to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis as U.S. Stealth fighters and an aircraft carrier assembled in the South for annual exercises. In a telephone call to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, President Bush  repeated his call for multilateral talks to end the standoff over the North's suspected nuclear weapons program.

North Korea  wants direct talks with the United States. At the United Nations , China seems to be backing its East Asian communist neighbor's stance while diplomats say Russia, also influential in Pyongyang, is sitting on the fence.

Roh's spokeswoman said on Friday Seoul hoped the conversation between the two leaders would help calm financial markets. Investors have been shaken by Pyongyang's continuous moves to ratchet up pressure on Washington for crisis talks.

South Korean Finance Minister Kim Jin-pyo said Roh's government would work harder to close a "perception gap" with outsiders who worry more about the crisis than South Koreans do.

"We know the situation better than others," he told foreign correspondents.

Seoul and Washington were on the same page in wanting to stop Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, he said. But he added that strategically vulnerable South Korea rejects the use of military force -- an option U.S. officials say remains on the table.

"I believe the U.S. government is well aware that about a quarter of South Korea's population lives just a two to three minute plane ride from the DMZ," he said. Kim was referring to the North-South frontier, behind which the bulk of North Korean troops and heavy artillery are massed.

The U.S. air force was preparing to resume spy flights off the coast of North Korea, while a Japanese report said the North may soon test-fire a missile that could reach Japan.

American military muscle has gone on full display in the South this week with the deployment of six F-117A Stealth warplanes.

The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson is due to take part in the annual U.S.-South Korean war games, too.

CHINA BLOCKS U.N. DEBATE

Several dozen anti-war protesters greeted the Carl Vinson as it docked in the port of Pusan on Friday.

North Korea, which has used belligerent rhetoric and provocative moves to press for direct talks with the United States, says the month-long exercises are practice for a nuclear attack.

The United States, focused on a possible war with Iraq , has played down a series of escalatory North Korean moves, including two cruise missile firings in the past fortnight and steady steps toward restarting its suspected nuclear weapons program.

That program was frozen under a bilateral U.S.-North Korean deal in 1994, and Washington says Pyongyang's violation of that pact several years later is the reason multilateral diplomacy is needed to disarm the North this time.

Bush said he was committed to a diplomatic solution, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer  said.

"The president has said that he believes this is a matter that can be settled through diplomacy, particularly multilateral diplomacy, and that remains his position," Fleischer said.

At the United Nations, however, China acknowledged blocking major powers from discussing the North Korea crisis, saying it wanted to see a dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

U.N. diplomats said the United States, backed by France and Britain, had been pressing for the Security Council's five permanent members -- those three plus Russia and China -- to draft a council statement condemning North Korea for failing to meet its international obligations.

STAKES ARE RISING

The stakes in this second North Korean nuclear crisis in a decade have been rising steadily. On Wednesday, the top U.S. envoy on North Korea told Congress Pyongyang could be just months away from being able to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said North Korea could obtain nuclear weapons in the short term from both its enriched uranium and plutonium programs.

The uranium program -- disclosure of which by the United States last October sparked the latest crisis -- complements the plutonium-based system that Washington believes North Korea has already used to make the one or two atomic bombs in its arsenal.

Japan's daily Yomiuri Shimbun said North Korea could be weeks away from launching a medium-range Rodong missile -- for the first time since August 1998. Military analysts say North Korea has about 100 Rodongs with a range of about 800 miles.

Japan said it had no evidence North Korea was set to fire the missile. Japan's Defense Agency said it had sent a destroyer equipped with an Aegis missile-detection system to the Sea of Japan but described it as part of regular patrols.

U.S officials said on Wednesday reconnaissance flights in international airspace off North Korea would resume after a delay caused by the interception of an unarmed U.S. aircraft by four North Korean MiG fighters on March 2.

Officials did not say whether the RC-135 spy plane flights had actually resumed or if U.S. fighters would accompany them.

U.S. B-52 and B-1 bombers landed on the Pacific island of Guam last week to deter any attempt by Pyongyang to take advantage of any U.S.-led war against Iraq.

PHOTO CAPTION

South Korean soldiers check their equipment during a joint military drill with U.S. forces in Paju, South Korea  March 13, 2003. The U.S. and South Korean presidents vowed to seek a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis as U.S. Stealth fighters and an aircraft carrier assembled in the South for annual war games. (Lee Jae-Won/Reuter