The United States said that it had narrowed differences with China and Russia on a draft UN resolution that would slap tough sanctions on the secretive regime although it was unclear when a vote might take place.
But amid clear divisions over how harsh those measures should be, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would visit China, South Korea, and Japan next week for high-level talks.
Citing unidentified sources in Washington, it said that the trip, along with the push for sanctions at the UN Security Council, was intended to send a "strong message" to North Korea after its shock announcement Monday that it had tested an atom bomb for the first time.
Neither the State Department in Washington nor the US embassy in Tokyo was able to confirm the report, which said that Rice would fly Tuesday to Japan before heading on to China and then South Korea.
Japan meanwhile approved its own bilateral sanctions, including a complete ban on imports and all visits by North Korean ships. "The additional sanctions are going to take effect at midnight [1500 GMT]," chief cabinet secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told reporters.
The measures will halt import of North Korean money-spinners such as clams, crabs, and high-end matsutake mushrooms.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean counterpart Roh Moo-Hyun were to hold talks at midday (0400 GMT).
China, North Korea's closest ally and biggest aid donor and trade partner, is key to agreeing a unified response in the nuclear crisis but has cautioned that "punishment is not the goal" of sanctions.
South Korea, for its part, has long championed a policy of engagement with Pyongyang, fearing that it has most to lose from instability that would result from the collapse of one of the world's most impoverished and isolated states.
"Summit discussions will be focused on an effect-oriented method of crisis settlement, rather than an emotional one," Yonhap news agency quoted a senior Seoul official as saying.
In New York, the United States said that it hoped that a UN Security Council vote on sanctions could be held by the end of the week.
"I don't want to say we've reached agreement yet," US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters, "but many of the significant differences have been closed, very much to our satisfaction."
"I still think it's possible to have a vote before the week's end," he said later, adding that a new draft was being circulated to capitals.
But the envoys of Japan and China both indicated that a vote was unlikely before Saturday, and the Russian ambassador said that more discussions were needed.
Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya said that Beijing still had problems with the US draft.
While insisting that the test must be "firmly opposed and condemned," Wang said that the response should be "firm, forceful, and also appropriate."
"It should be helpful for leading to a solution of this issue by peaceful means, and it should also create conditions for the parties to once again, in negotiations, to settle this issue," he added.
His Japanese counterpart Kenzo Oshima, the Council president for October, reported "really good progress" but added that "if we are lucky, we [will be] ready for a vote, most likely Saturday."
The US draft condemns the test, calls for inspection of all seaborne cargo to and from North Korea, and an array of financial and military sanctions. It also demands that Pyongyang scrap all of its programs involving nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and ballistic missiles "in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner."
It further calls on Pyongyang to return immediately to six-nation talks on nuclear disarmament that it has boycotted since last November, and provides for a travel ban on senior North officials involved in WMD-related programs.
However, it dropped an earlier Japanese demand that all UN member states bar North Korean ships and aircraft from their airports and seaports.
In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard said that all options were on the table - including military action that nations such as China and South Korea have flatly ruled out.
"It's a real dilemma because nobody wants military conflict, but you are dealing with a country that doesn't seem to respond to the sort of pressure and the sort of situations that other countries respond to - it's not rational," he said.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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