SEOUL - SOUTH Korea hopes to host a summit in 2010 involving 21 nations which took part in the Korean War to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the conflict, officials said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said it plans to invite leaders from the 21 nations as part of events to mark the anniversary.

'It is just an idea and nothing has been decided yet,' a spokesman told AFP.

During the three-year war, which erupted in 1950 with a North Korean invasion, troops from 16 countries including Australia, Britain, Canada, France and the United States fought for South Korea under a United Nations flag.

Five countries including Italy, Norway and India sent medical teams.

The conflict ended with an armistice and not a full peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war.

Yonhap news agency said another proposal considered by ministry officials would include leaders from 21 countries as well as from South Korea's enemies during the war - North Korea, China and Russia.

But such a plan may be impossible considering frosty inter-Korean relations which began after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak took office in February, it said.

In the past 60 years the two Koreas have held only two summits, in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007. North Korea's top leaders have never visited Seoul. -- AFP