In a highly provocative move that US officials said amounted to a blatant blackmail threat, Li Gun, deputy director of North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, announced at the Beijing talks that his country had an unspecified number of nuclear warheads, the first time such a claim has been made by a North Korean official.

According to US State Department officials, the “blatant and bold” announcement that North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, made to James Kelly, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, was followed by the threat to test one.

One State Department official said that Mr Li, attending talks aimed at persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons programme, turned to Mr Kelly after making the claim and said: “Now, what are you going to do about it?” Mr Li, according to the official, said that North Korea would consider dismantling “nuclear facilities” if Washington signed a non- aggression pact.

It was unclear last night if the threat to test a nuclear bomb had actually been made, or was a mistake in translation. Another Bush administration official said a test threat had not been made. “We’re still translating, but it is being overplayed,” the official said.

But the admission by North Korea that it possesses nuclear weapons significantly complicates Washington’s response to the six-month nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. President Bush has repeatedly asserted his belief that a diplomatic solution can be found to the crisis, which was triggered in October when Pyongyang admitted to an advanced nuclear weapons programme.

Since then North Korea has insisted that it would only discuss its nuclear programme directly and exclusively with America. Washington has insisted on an internationalist approach involving the UN Security Council or regional talks. This week’s tripartite talks, proposed and attended by China, appeared to provide both Washington and Pyongyang with an acceptable compromise.

Although Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, has said Pyongyang may already possess “one or two” nuclear weapons, the hope in the White House was that the talks would elicit more conciliatory rhetoric from North Korea, part of Mr Bush’s “axis of evil”, not aggressive claims aimed at forcing concessions from the US.

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, announced the end of the talks, one day earlier than expected, before delivering a strongly worded warning to Pyongyang against making “threats”.

Addressing the Asia-Pacific Council in Washington, Mr Powell said: “The North Koreans should not leave this series of discussions that have been held in Beijing with the slightest impression that the United States and its partners and the nations in the region will be intimidated by bellicose statements or by threats or actions they think might get them more attention or might force us to make a concession that we would not otherwise make.

”They would be very ill-advised to move in that direction.”

A State Department official later held out the possibility of further talks today, if the parties had “something more they feel they have to say to each other”.

Mr Powell said that Washington had not taken any options off the table — meaning that military action has not been ruled out — and that the US was looking for ways to “eliminate” the threat posed by any North Korean nuclear weapons programme.

He added: “Strong views were presented. The North Koreans presented their point of view strongly, the Chinese did as well, as did the United States.”

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