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Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will open a new era of relations with North Korea this week by replacing a Cold War pact with a friendship treaty during the first high-level Russian visit in 10 years.

Ivanov will arrive in Pyongyang on Wednesday for the two-day visit during which he will meet with North Korean leaders, including Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly.

Ivanov also will carry a message from acting Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-il, the ITAR-TASS news agency said on Tuesday.

``The visit starting on Wednesday will be a symbolic commitment and a significant start of a new stage of relations based on the recognition of new realities,'' Georgii Toloraya, deputy head of the foreign ministry's Asian department, told ITAR-TASS.

Relations between Moscow and Pyongyang went into a deep freeze after Russia extended diplomatic recognition to North Korea's rival, South Korea, in 1990.

Former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze was the last high-level official to visit North Korea.

Ivanov hopes his visit will restore cooperation between the former Cold War allies with the signing of the new friendship treaty, which will replace a 1961 defense pact.

The treaty aims to strengthen peace and stability in Asia, regulate relations between the two countries for the next quarter century and support the union of the Korean peninsula with the agreement of Pyongyang and Seoul, ITAR-TASS said.

The two sides were to discuss the political situation on the Korean peninsula and Russia's fears about the spread of nuclear weapons, ITAR-TASS said.

Last week, Ivanov and Putin discussed growing fears about the spread of such weapons to other countries, like North Korea, in talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Moscow.

Washington wants to amend the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty (ABM) to allow the building of a defense shield to protect itself from new nuclear powers.

But Ivanov said changes to the ABM treaty would be a ``serious mistake.'' Ivanov will seek North Korea's support for a global system of control over missiles and weapons technology, Toloraya told ITAR-TASS.

``We will propose that North Korea participate in this project,'' he said.

``Both countries have come out against the creation of an anti-missile defense system of military operations in the Asian theater.''

In the run-up to Ivanov's visit, Moscow has taken pains to show the new friendship treaty is different from the 1961 military pact in which Russia pledged military intervention if war erupted on the Korean peninsula.

The treaty ``is not aimed against a third country,'' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

Moscow and Pyongyang will boost economic cooperation, including joint projects to rebuild and modernise North Korean factories, many of which were built with Moscow's help, ITAR-TASS said.

From North Korea, Ivanov will fly on to Japan and Vietnam.

He will discuss efforts to sign a peace treaty with Japan, which has been dogged by a row over four tiny islands held by Russia since the end of World War II.

On Monday, more than 1,000 Japanese leaders, including Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, rallied to demand the return of the islands known as the southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

Russia and Japan signed an accord in November 1997 agreeing to solve the dispute by the end of this year, but progress has been slow.

In Hanoi, Ivanov will discuss bilateral military and technical cooperation, diplomatic sources told Interfax news agency.