The two Koreas have made almost no progress on fielding a joint team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics but would almost certainly march together at this month's Winter Asian Games, a South Korean Olympic official said on Wednesday.

The Koreas have long sought to form a joint 2008 Olympic team, but talks were temporarily suspended due to the North's defiant missile test in July 2006.

In November, North Korea, which further chilled relations with a nuclear test in October, proposed resuming talks on the joint team. Olympic committee officials from the two countries met at last month's Asian Games in Doha.

"We have not spoken at all since then on a joint team. No progress has been made," said the official, who asked not to be named.

Last Friday, North Korea proposed marching together at the Winter Asian Games and then competing as separate teams, the official said, adding the South will almost certainly accept the offer.

Impoverished North Korea also asked the South to provide the clothes for the joint march at the opening and closing ceremonies of the games to be held in the Chinese city of Changchun, the official said.

Still technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War ended with a truce and not a peace treaty, North and South Korea first considered competing as a joint team at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, but years of acrimony and military tensions have prevented it from happening.

North and South Korea have marched together at past Olympics, including last year's Winter Games in Turin, but competed as separate teams. They also marched together in Doha.

Forming joint teams would be difficult, however. The South, with better-funded sports programmes and more world-class athletes, wants to field the most competitive team possible.

North Korea has said it wants to field a joint team with equal representation of athletes from the North and South.