America hopes to tie up a concerted international response to North Korea's nuclear adventure today after proposing a compromise designed to win the support of Russia and China.

In a new draft UN resolution circulated late last night, Washington modified its earlier plan to mount international inspections of all cargoes entering and leaving North Korea and softened the language used to describe financial sanctions.

Instead it proposed a travel ban on North Koreans who support Kim Jong Il's weapons programme and a Security Council committee that will report on the efforts of member states to control the movement of people and goods that might help Pyongyang develop more missiles and nuclear warheads.

The plan excludes altogether Japan's hawkish suggestions to stop North Korean ships docking in ports and North Korean aircraft from taking off or landing in any country. But it maintains a ban on the export of luxury goods, a measure aimed squarely at the Stalinist state's tiny elite.

The resolution, which will be put before the UN Security Council today with the hope of being passed tomorrow, was the result of Chinese and Russian objections to the more stringent plans put forward earlier this week by Washington and Tokyo.

Beijing and Moscow, as well as South Korea, fear that North Korea could easily be provoked into conducting further nuclear tests or military action.

North Korea underlined the concerns by saying yesterday that it would regard more sanctions as an act of war.

Pyongyang threatened "physical measures", including a second nuclear test, unless Washington ceased to confront it. President Bush said that he had "no intention of attacking" the isolated Stalinist regime and that he would pursue "all diplomatic efforts" in response to North Korea’s first atomic explosion.

"Diplomacy hasn’t run its course, and we’ll continue working to give diplomacy a full opportunity to succeed," he said. But he made it clear that President Kim Jong Il must face "serious repercussions" for sparking the world’s latest nuclear crisis.

The new resolution offers two key compromises to Russia and China, which have both indicated that are ready to accept legally binding sanctions aimed at Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, but that they are unwilling to enforce them with international inspections.

In the original resolution, UN members were required to inspect all cargo to and from North Korea to ensure compliance with sanctions. Now states must investigate "as necessary" to ensure compliance and to prevent smuggling.

The US has also reduced the scope of financial sanctions. While states must still freeze all assets related to North Korea’s weapons programmes, broader measures aimed at controlling "counterfeiting, money-laundering or narcotics" have been dropped. North Korea's stalled economy relies on massive, state-sponsored counterfeit and drug making schemes.

But the bulk of the resolution remained unchanged, with a strong condemnation of Monday's test and a demand that North Korea immediately and unconditionally return to six-party talks with the US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

While the UN Security Council prepared to consider the new resolution, Japan pressed ahead with its own more aggressive response to Pyongyang. The Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe approved the blocking of North Korean ships from Japanese waters.

The Cabinet is expected to endorse the plan tomorrow. North Korea's Ambassador in charge of relations with Japan said Pyongyang would respond with "strong countermeasures".

"We never speak empty words," said Song Il Ho.

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