TOKYO - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice indicated today that the next move in a standoff over North Korea's nuclear program will be up to the Pyongyang government, and she played down expectations that her visit to Asian capitals will produce a breakthrough.

North Korea pulled out of six-nation nuclear arms talks and announced last month that it has already built a nuclear weapon.

"We need to intensify efforts to not just get the North Koreans back to the table, that's important, yes, but there is a proposal on the table from the United States," Rice said during a news conference en route to Japan.

The United States has offered assurances that it has no intention of attacking North Korea and that Pyongyang can have other unspecified security guarantees if it renounces nuclear weapons.

The future of the six-nation talks is on Rice's agenda for meetings this weekend in Japan and South Korea, and on Monday in China. Those nations, plus the United States and Russia, have been negotiating with North Korea.

Negotiators report progress toward coalition government, but delay is grating on many Iraqis

BAGHDAD, Iraq -Nearly two months after they braved death to vote, many Iraqis are growing frustrated over the slow pace of the talks to form a new government.The 275-seat National Assembly was elected Jan. 30 and sworn in Wednesday. But the deputies failed to set a date to reconvene, to elect a speaker or to nominate a president and vice president - all of which they had hoped to do their first day. Instead, the session was spent reveling in the seating of Iraq's first democratic legislature in a half century.On Thursday, however, both Kurds and Shiites reported progress on a range of issues, including the shape of the Iraqi government."We will be seeing a government formed next week," predicted Haitham al-Husseiny, who heads the office of Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance.In violence around Iraq, six U.S. soldiers were wounded in the northern city of Mosul when a convoy was attacked by a car bomber, Capt. Patricia Brewer said in Baghdad. According to a witness, Faisal Qasim, the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber who slammed his car into a convoy of seven armored vehicles, striking the fourth.

JERUSALEM - Israel today welcomed a temporary truce declared by Palestinian militants and promised to hold its fire in return, but demanded that the Palestinian Authority eventually dismantle the armed groups.The 13 main Palestinian militant groups announced Thursday they would halt attacks on Israel for the rest of the year, so far the longest period of promised calm and a success for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. Negotiating with the militants, rather than confronting them, is a cornerstone of Abbas' policies.A cease-fire would also help Israel withdraw this summer from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements without the threat of Palestinian fire during what is expected to be a complicated operation accompanied by fierce Jewish settler resistance.