61.   Government contacts between the two Koreas have ebbed since President Bush decided to suspend talks with North Korea while awaiting a policy review.

62.   He said Malaysia would make known its stand on the arrangement after it had completed its defense policy review in the middle of next year.

63.   He said no negotiations with Pyongyang are planned until after a policy review.

64.   He said William Perry, a former U.S. defense secretary, was overseeing the policy review.

65.   His administration has voiced skepticism about the North and said Bush would suspend talks with Pyongyang during a policy review.

66.   In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson dismissed the news as unconfirmed press leaks, saying reports on the policy review were unreliable and declining to comment.

67.   In issuing its first public defense policy review in three years, China on Monday renewed a threat to retake Taiwan by force.

68.   Inter-Korean exchanges stalled after U.S. President George W. Bush came to office and ordered a temporary suspension of contacts with North Korea pending a policy review.

69.   Instead, he placed North Korea under a policy review.

70.   It quoted an administration officials as saying a decision was made in June at top government levels to withhold the report, pending a separate policy review.