Washington ? The White House rejected North Korean demands for one-on-one talks with the United States on Friday, insisting it will discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear program only if four neighboring governments take part as well.

Meanwhile, Japan, China and South Korea joined the U.S. call for North Korea to return to the stalled six-party disarmament talks, in a sign of continuing support for the group approach adopted by the Bush administration.

A day after North Korea surprised the world by publicly declaring its nuclear capability, White House press secretary Scott McClellan insisted: “It’s not an issue between the United States and North Korea. It’s a regional issue. And it’s an issue that impacts all of its neighbors.”

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in Sapporo, Japan, that, “I understand calls for imposing sanctions (on North Korea) are growing. But we have to urge them to come to the talks in the first place.”

U.S. officials and others have believed for a decade that North Korea has nuclear weapons. But Thursday’s declaration was a reminder that the United States faces an urgent proliferation challenge on the Korean peninsula as well as in Iran. U.S. officials and their allies generally interpreted the North Korean declaration as a sign the impoverished regime wanted to begin negotiations from a strong position.

North Korea’s demand for direct talks with the United States was delivered Friday by Pyongyang’s ambassador to the United Nations, Han Sang Ryol.

Although North Korea declared Thursday that it intended to abandon the stalled disarmament talks, in an interview with the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh, Han said North Korea would return to the six-party talks “when we see a reason to do so and the conditions are ripe. If the United States moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the United States is changing its hostile policy toward us.”

He said North Korea had “no other option but to regard the United States’ refusal to have direct dialogue with us as an intention not to recognize us and to eliminate our system.”