South Korea leader says ready to meet North's Kim

"I won't insist on holding a summit in Seoul. It doesn't matter even if the summit venue is outside (South) Korea," the South Korean leader said during a televised town hall meeting.

Lee added however that he had no immediate plans to push for a summit.

His comment came as Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korean policy, is scheduled to visit the communist state on December 8, hoping to persuade the North to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks.

North Korea quit the six-party talks in April, a month before testing a second atomic weapon.

Leader Kim Jong-Il said last month he was ready to return to the six-party talks, but only if bilateral discussions with the United States were satisfactory.

Lee said any summit meeting between North and South would be arranged and held transparently.

"Because denuclearization of the Korean peninsula is such an important issue, I plan to meet (Kim) at any time and anywhere, as long as our objective of such a summit will be achieved," he said.

The Koreas held summit talks in 2000 and 2007 and agreed on a series of reconciliation events and joint economic projects.

Pyongyang began making peace overtures in August, after months of bitter hostility which began when Lee took office in February 2008 and linked economic cooperation to the North's nuclear disarmament.

Relations worsened again after a naval clash on November 10 on the tense Yellow Sea border.

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