As Asian ministers meeting here clamour for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, Rice is expected to cut short her trip to Malaysia Friday and resume her Middle East crisis mission.

"I am willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time," she said after arriving here Thursday for the region's top security dialogue, the ASEAN Regional Forum hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Before she departs she is expected to face tough questions over US ally Israel's actions, particularly after Tuesday's air strike on a UN post in southern Lebanon which killed four UN observers including a Chinese national.

Earlier this week regional ministers expressed their deep concern over Israel's "apparently deliberate targeting" of the UN post and said they would press Rice on their calls for an immediate ceasefire which the US rejects.

The other major item on a packed agenda Friday is 10-nation talks between the United States and Asian powers which are expected to focus on the North Korean missile crisis.

The North has shunned diplomatic efforts led by China and South Korea for it to rejoin stalled six-nation talks on its nuclear programme which it has boycotted since November.

"North Koreans confirm to us that they do not want to attend any six-party process," Washington's top envoy on Asia, Christopher Hill, said Friday.

"We confirm to them that we do not intend to make the entire multilateral process hostage to the fact that they will not attend."

The 10 countries to meet here include the other five participants in the six-way talks -- China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States, together with Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand.

"They have clearly made a decision for the time being to be isolated," Hill said of the North Koreans.

"The problem is that the more they isolate themselves, the more they will be isolated by the international community."

Hill defended US financial sanctions against North Korea which triggered the boycott.

"What we have done is to take appropriate measures to defend ourselves, defend our banking system and work with other countries to protect the international banking system against North Korean illicit activities," he said.

"Frankly speaking, they need to get out of this dirty illicit activity, in particular the counterfeiting of the US dollar."

The region's other black sheep, Myanmar, is usually subject to intense criticism at the ASEAN Regional Forum, but with so many pressing global issues at hand it has so far managed to maintain a low profile.

Hill shrugged off a weaker-than-expected statement censuring Myanmar's suppression of democracy at ASEAN's foreign ministers' meetings here this week.

"Frankly, I think Burma is finding there is an emerging consensus that Burma is way out of line," said Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs.

"Burma is a problem for the entire region. Burma used to be a major exporter of various tropical products and now it is an exporter of disease and refugees. I think there is a great deal of concern about Burma's behavior," he said.

In addition to ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, the ARF groups Australia, Bangaladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

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