Seoul, Aug 4 (DPA) Former US president Bill Clinton arrived Tuesday in Pyongyang, state media reported, as South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said the focus of the trip would be to negotiate the release of two American journalists held since March in the reclusive communist state.

Clinton landed in Pyongyang and was met by high-ranking officials, including Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's top nuclear negotiator, North Korea's Central Television said in its midday broadcast.

North Korean observers were closely watching Clinton's visit to see whether he would meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il amid hopes that such a meeting could turn around an escalation of tensions triggered by North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

'Our children presented flowers to Mr Clinton,' state-run Central Television said.

North Korean news media did not mention the purpose of Clinton's visit in North Korea, but Yonhap, citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul, said he would try to win the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were sentenced last month to 12 years of hard labour after North Korea said they had illegally crossed its border.

The trip by Clinton, the husband of US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, also came at a time when talks with North Korea over its nuclear programme have stalled. Pyongyang is reportedly seeking direct talks with Washington while Washington wants to continue six-nation negotiations that also involve China, South Korea, Japan and Russia with the aim of ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.

Yonhap quoted one informed source as saying that the former president, whose administration was involved in extensive talks with the North Korean government, was to meet with Kim, whose health has been a matter of concern over the past year.

Lee and Ling were arrested in mid-March on the Chinese-North Korean border while working on a story about North Koreans fleeing their impoverished country.