South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday that the issue of abducted Japanese is not proper to be discussed in the six-party talks.

"The six-party talks should focus on North Korean nuclear issues. The nations concerned with the six-party talks are not looking forward to set the abduction problem as a priority in the negotiations," Roh said at a conference with foreign correspondents held at the Presidential Office, while stressing he and most of the South Koreans understand the Japanese government's stance over the abduction issue.

Roh, who made agreement with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe earlier that he will pay a visit to Japan later this year, said it is still not decided when the visit will be conducted.

"There is no precondition set for the visit to Japan," said Roh, who had suspended visit to Japan for years due to former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to the Yashukuni Shrine which houses class A WWII war criminals.

Roh said he expects that Japanese political leaders could make sincere efforts to strengthen the basis of the Seoul -Tokyo cooperation and friendship while act cautiously on the issues related with the historic problem and the shrine.

During the conference, Roh denied his government is making diplomatic efforts for a second inter-Korean summit, saying that it is difficult to conduct such a summit before the six-party talks make substantial progress.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)