JAKARTA, July 2 Kyodo - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun met Friday in Jakarta to clarify their countries' stances on how to resolve the standoff over North Korea's nuclear programs, a U.S. official said.

''There was an opportunity for concrete progress,'' Powell was quoted by U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as telling Paek during their 20-minute meeting on the sidelines of the 11th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum.

Paek reiterated his country's call on the United States to scrap what it calls its hostile policy against North Korea, according a statement the North Korean delegation issued after the meeting.

''If the United States is of the position to improve bilateral relations, the DPRK also will not regard the U.S. as a permanent enemy. The prospect of DPRK-U.S. relations entirely depends on a switch in the U.S. hostile policy to the DPRK,'' Paek was quoted as saying.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The meeting was the highest-level substantive talks yet with North Korea by the administration of President George W. Bush. Although U.S. officials called it a ''conversation'' rather than a formal bilateral meeting, it had been officially arranged.

It was also the first contact between U.S. and North Korean foreign ministers since the nuclear crisis erupted in October 2002, as they last met on the sidelines of the ARF two years ago.

Boucher said, ''The discussion was useful to help clarify each side's proposals.''

Powell apparently urged Paek to acknowledge the presence of all suspected nuclear development programs, including a uranium enrichment program. The United States says North Korea had admitted to running a covert uranium-based program, but Pyongyang has denied its existence.

In the June 23-26 third round of six-way nuclear talks, North Korea asked for energy aid equivalent to 2,000 megawatts of electricity in return for freezing its nuclear programs as a first step toward dismantling them.

However, Paek insisted in a later ARF session Friday that North Korea regards the proposed freeze as a first step toward dismantling its ''nuclear weapons'' programs, a Japanese official said.

''How soon we can dismantle them depends on how soon we will be able to embark on it,'' Paek was quoted as saying, after also saying that North Korea is dealing with the issue ''with tolerance and flexibility,'' maintaining the ultimate goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

In his meeting with Powell, Paek said, ''The principle of simultaneous actions is the only way of resolving the issue under the present conditions in which there is no trust between the DPRK and the United States,'' according to the statement.

He particularly emphasized ''the importance of the United States making a commitment to renouncing its hostile policy on the DPRK and taking measures to reward directly by accepting the DPRK proposal on 'reward for freeze,''' it says.

Powell emphasized the significance of the U.S. proposal, presented last month in the latest round of six-party talks, ''to move forward on dismantlement of North Korean nuclear programs,'' Boucher said.

In the latest round of nuclear talks, the United States also presented its own proposal to end the 20-month-old standoff.

The U.S. proposal features a three-month preparatory period for dismantling North Korea's nuclear programs and incentives, including energy aid by the other four countries and a provisional multinational security guarantee, if Pyongyang commits to doing away with its nuclear programs. ==Kyodo