SEOUL (AFP) - US military and civilian divers will start searching Seoul's Han River next week for the remains of American soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, officials said Thursday.

The underwater search will be the first of its kind here, Charles Ray, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

A spokesman for US Forces Korea confirmed the cooperation was expected to start next week.

Ray, who has responsibility for prisoner of war and missing personnel affairs, arrived Sunday on a visit that will end Friday.

Divers will launch the investigation at three different sites on the river next week for the first time since the end of the war, said Johnie Webb, deputy commander of the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.

"As soon as we can ensure the safety of the team doing some underwater investigation in the Han River, they will be doing investigations on three different losses that we know occurred in the river," Webb was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

The POW-MIA command also has a team working near the Demilitarised Zone that divides the two Koreas.

"There is in the United States a lot of interest in resolving the cases of Americans who did not return from the Korean War, and from our other conflicts as well," Ray told Yonhap.

"We are engaged with ROK (South Korea) and many other countries to try to find answers," he said, without giving further details of the river search.

More than 8,100 US servicemen remain missing from the Korean War, with many believed buried in North Korea.

Washington's recovery operations in the communist North were suspended in 2005 amid rising tensions over its nuclear weapons programme.

Ray said the US has no immediate plans to resume operations in North Korea.

"We really need to see some satisfactory outcome of the six-party talks and the resolution of the North Korean issue," he said, referring to six-nation nuclear disarmament negotiations.

The US headed a United Nations Command which fought for South Korea against North Korea and China during the war. It still has some 28,000 troops stationed in the South.

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