From correspondents in Delhi, India, 12:36 AM IST

India, Russia and China have welcomed the 'success' of the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue leading to Pyongyang agreeing to abandon its nuclear weapons programme in return for energy or aid.

'We welcome the breakthrough and the success in the six-party talks on the Korean nuclear issue,' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters after a trilateral meeting of with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Li Zhaoxing of China here.

Lavrov stressed that the meeting with Mukherjee and Li covered a wide range of 'burning global issues' based on a common approach to international affairs.

'We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs,' Mukherjee said while underlining the need to strengthen cooperation among the three countries on important global issues.

They also stressed on reinvigorating the UN and discussed the Iranian nuclear crisis, the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East peace process.

The talks involving the two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia, which concluded in Beijing Tuesday in the shadow of North Korea's first nuclear test last October, led to a compromise deal that requires Pyongyang to shut its Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in exchange for 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent aid.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)