The Unification Ministry has denied pushing for an inter-Korean summit this year between President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

But according to the Hankook Ilbo, a leading South Korean daily, the ministry included recommendations for such a summit in 2007 in a policy paper it drafted for the president.

The policy paper reportedly mentioned a summit along with several other measures the South Korean government could pursue to break the nuclear deadlock. Among these were renewed exchanges of high-level officials and the lifting of a ban on South Korean visits to prohibited places in the North.

A spokesman for the Unification Ministry has denied any such plans for a summit, saying that the policy paper was for internal reference only.