WASHINGTON - The White House said today that North Korea, in talks with the United States, gave no indication that it is ready to return to six-party talks on halting its nuclear weapons program.

The two sides met in New York on Monday, their first meeting in a month. The U.S. aim is to resume six-nation negotiations after a yearlong impasse. The meeting came as the United States withdrew a threat to try to punish the North Koreans soon with U.N. sanctions.

"We're hopeful they will return to the talks," said Scott McClellan, spokesman for President Bush. However, he said, North Korea did not indicate in Monday's meeting that it was ready to resume negotiations. He said the meeting in New York was a forum to exchange messages, not to negotiate.

The U.S. position calls on North Korea to return at an early date without any preconditions.

In Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he believed North Korea wanted to return to the negotiations and resolve an international standoff over its nuclear weapons program.

"I believe that North Korea really does want somehow to hold six-party talks and resolve the matter," the Kyodo news agency quoted Koizumi as telling reporters during a visit to the 2005 World Expo in Aichi.

State Department envoy Joseph DiTrani and James Foster, who is in charge of the department's office of Korean affairs, were the diplomats who met with North Korean officials. U.S. officials said the North Koreans at the meeting were Ambassador Pak Gil-Yon and Deputy Ambassador Han Song-Ryol.

In a conciliatory move, meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said in Bangkok, Thailand, that no deadline had been set to bring the dispute to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions against North Korea.

Rumsfeld's statement nullified one by a senior defense official traveling with him. That official had said earlier that there could be a decision on going to the United Nations within weeks.

U.S. chances of punishing North Korea with economic or political sanctions would not be great, in any event, since China, which opposes sanctions generally, could veto a U.S. motion.

The insular North Korean government, meanwhile, has denounced sanctions as tantamount to a declaration of war.