Rice will also be confronted over the US position on Israel and the Lebanon conflict at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum, the area's top security meeting.

Rice told reporters en route to Kuala Lumpur from a Middle East peace conference in Rome that she did not anticipate any resumption here of stalled six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

North Korea, which has already dominated a meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers earlier this week, pulled out of the three-year-old nuclear talks in November in protest over US financial sanctions.

The communist country provoked further outrage and Tokyo-sponsored condemnation by the UN Security Council when it test-fired seven missiles on July 5 that splashed into the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

"I don't have any indication that the North Koreans intend to take up the call that was in the resolution that they should reengage," Rice said, echoing pessimistic comments by her chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill.

Rice said that while in Malaysia she would follow up on the North Korea issue with South Korea, China, Japan and the other remaining party to the talks, Russia.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is also due in Kuala Lumpur Thursday along with the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

The South Korean, Japanese and Chinese foreign ministers made fresh efforts early Thursday to find a way to bring to the negotiating table North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun, who is due to arrive shortly after Rice.

China said this week that proposed six-nation talks had been scheduled for Friday on the sidelines of the ASEAN regional forum but there has been no response from Pyongyang.

"As the international concerns over North Korea's missile firings have developed recently, it's important for the top diplomats of the two countries to have discussions," South Korea's Ban said at the start of a meeting with Japanese counterpart Taro Aso.

The Asian powers and the United States have been considering other ways to tackle the issue, although they have disagreed about going ahead without North Korea, with both China and South Korea opposing such a move.

US envoy Hill suggested that the talks could be broadened to include other countries, following a South Korean suggestion for multilateral talks also including Malaysia, Australia and Canada.

China, North Korea's major ally, said Wednesday it was "seriously concerned" about the situation on the Korean peninsula.

Pyongyang dramatically upped the stakes this week, branding Rice a "political imbecile" after the US official called the missile launches "completely irresponsible" and "dangerous".

Meanwhile the US Secretary of State will face renewed pressure on the Middle East in Asia even as she canvasses support for US positions on North Korea, Myanmar and Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Asian ministers have condemned Tuesday's Israeli air strike on a United Nations post in southern Lebanon, which killed four UN observers, and said they would raise the issue with Rice.

"I think here the United States, which has the greatest influence on the Israelis, must encourage them to take a decision to stop all these bombings," Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar has said.

Police said snipers, sniffer dogs and hundreds of police were in place around the conference venue next to Kuala Lumpur's iconic Petronas towers, where protesters planned to rally against Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Gaza.

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