North Korea's parliament said yesterday it would take "relevant measures" to support the communist leadership's decision to reject further talks on the country's nuclear programme and boost its atomic deterrent.

The unusual decision by the Supreme People's Assembly echoed a tough weekend Foreign Ministry statement on last week's six-way talks in Beijing. But it seemed to contradict comments by the official KCNA news agency on Monday that Pyongyang still wanted to resolve the dispute through dialogue.

The parliamentary decision said the Beijing talks -- which brought together China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea and the United States -- proved Washington did not want to co-exist peacefully with the North.

It noted that the North Korean Foreign Ministry, with government backing, had said it saw no further point in talks and Pyongyang had no choice but to keep and enhance its nuclear deterrent.

"(Parliament) considered as just all the measures taken by the Foreign Ministry upon the authorization of the DPRK government, supported and approved them and decided to take relevant measures," KCNA quoted parliament as saying. It did not elaborate on those measures.

South Korean media have said the North's parliament might map out economic reforms and policy for the next five years.

The North's economy is in tatters and piecemeal reforms, such as scrapping rationing and raising prices, have done little to stitch things together.

Parliament did not refer to KCNA's softer line on Monday, but North Korea has a record of issuing confusing signals while negotiating. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.