JAPAN'S Prime Minister Taro Aso condemned on Thursday's launches, telling reporters: 'We have repeatedly warned that such a provocative act is not beneficial for North Korea's national interest.'

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the launches had not come as a surprise.

'The North Koreans said they were going to launch these missiles,' he told reporters.

'I take the North Koreans at their word that they're going to continue their provocative actions,' Mr Gibbs said.

However, the commander of US Northern Command, General Victor Renuart, told The Washington Times he did not think Pyongyang's missiles posed any real threat to the US.

'Our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California... give me a capability that if we really are threatened by a long-range ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) that I've got high confidence that I could interdict that flight before it caused huge damage to any US territory,' the paper quoted him as saying.

In Beijing, a US delegation on Thursday met officials for talks on giving the UN sanctions more teeth.

The support of China, the North's sole major ally and largest trade partner, is seen as crucial in making the sanctions stick.

The delegation, led by Mr Philip Goldberg - the State Department's point man on coordinating implementation of the sanctions - met officials from the foreign ministry.

His team includes members of the National Security Council and the departments of Treasury and Defence.

Mr Goldberg declined comment on China's position.

'The US position is that we want all the various aspects of the resolutions to work,' he told reporters. 'It is our intention to fully implement the resolutions.' US warships have since mid-June been tracking a North Korean ship suspected of carrying weapons. The Kang Nam 1 was reportedly headed for Myanmar but US officials said on Tuesday it has now turned back.

China said its top envoy on the North Korean nuclear issue, Mr Wu Dawei, had begun a visit to Russia, the United States, Japan and South Korea.

They are members of a forum which has tried since 2003 to persuade the North to scrap its nuclear programmes in return for energy aid and diplomatic and security benefits.

The North announced it was quitting the talks after the UN censured its long-range rocket launch on April 5. -- AFP