Seoul: South Korea's conservative next president Lee Myung-Bak today said he is willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il after taking office next month.

"The leaders of the two Koreas can meet anytime they believe it will help North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons and will also help both Koreas," Lee told a press conference on his policy priorities.

Lee, who has promised to take a firmer line with the nuclear-armed communist state, said any future summit should be held in the South. "If we meet again, I think, the place should be on our side," he said.

The previous two summits, in 2000 and last October, were held in the North's capital Pyongyang. Lee, who will be sworn in on February 25,also offered the impoverished North major economic aid if it honours an international pledge to scrap its nuclear programmes.

"If they sincerely fulfill the agreements reached at the six-party talks, we can advance the era of full-scale inter-Korean cooperation," he said. The former construction executive promised to strengthen Seoul's alliance with the United States and said this would in turn help the North reconcile with its traditional enemy Washington.

"If both South Korea-US relations and inter-Korean relations improve, North Korea-US relations will be able to improve too," he said. The North missed a year-end deadline to disable its main atomic plants and declare all its nuclear programmes under a six-nation pact, according to its negotiating partners.

Source : PTI