US and North Korea plan talks in Beijing

President George W. Bush has approved a plan to begin negotiations with North Korea in Beijing as early as next week to resolve a nuclear standoff.

United States officials confirmed a New York Times report that China had agreed to be a full participant in the talks.

The development came after the communist North signalled last weekend that it was willing to go along with a US demand for multilateral talks, after having insisted for months that it wanted to talk only to Washington about its suspected nuclear arms plans.

A senior US official familiar with the talks described the involvement of the Chinese as a breakthrough.

In Indonesia, a radical Muslim cleric charged with trying to overthrow the Government and setting up the regional Jemaah Islamiyah network will go on trial next Tuesday.

Police have blamed the militant network for October's Bali bombings, which killed 202 people. Although they have linked cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to the act, they have not charged him over it.