UNITED NATIONS (Reuters):

U.N. Security Council members were expected to vote today on a resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its reported nuclear weapons test, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

The United States, responding to China and Russia's concerns, has introduced a resolution ruling out military force, and kept up a diplomatic push.

The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit China, Japan and South Korea on October 17-22 to discuss responses to North Korea, whose announcement of a nuclear test on Monday sharply escalated concern over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

More changes

Bolton spoke to reporters yesterday after consultations among the 15 Security Council nations and said there might still be more changes to the draft resolution during the day.

China, which is North Korea's closest ally, but has strongly condemned Pyonyang's test announcement, still has reservations with a provision that authorizes nations to search cargo going to and leaving North Korea for nuclear materials or ballistic missiles.

The United States in 2003 launched the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) that encourages countries to interdict dangerous weapons from North Korea, Iran and other states of concern. Some 75 countries are said to support it.

Escalations of provocations

"The PSI, politically China will not do it," Beijing's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters. "I believe the exercises under the PSI will easily lead, whether it is intentional or not, will lead to different escalations of provocations."

North Korea has said it would see tough U.N. measures as tantamount to a declaration of war and remained unrepentant in the face of international condemnation.

Washington's "hostile policy ... has gone beyond the tolerance limit and a dangerous atmosphere of confrontation reminiscent of that on the eve of war is now prevailing on the Korean Peninsula," its state news agency, KCNA, said.