North Korea declared Tuesday it has a right to carry out long-range missile tests, despite international calls for the country to refrain from launching a rocket.

The bristling statement from North Korea to Japanese reporters in Pyongyang came as France and the UN secretary-general raised the alarm over what are believed to be the nation's preparations for a test of the Taepodong-2, with a range of up to 9,300 miles.

This is an Orbview-3 satellite image provided by GeoEye showing the Taepodong missile launch complex in North Korea, called Musudan-ri, in May 2006. The Bush administration is weighing responses to a possible North Korean missile test that include attempting to shoot it down in flight over the Pacific, defense officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday. [AP]

The North's declaration prompted Japan and South Korea to pledge to cooperate to stop Pyongyang's apparent plans for a launch.

The United States and Japan have said they could consider sanctions against the impoverished state and push the UN Security Council for retaliatory action should the launch go ahead. Pyongyang demonstrated its ability to hit Tokyo when it fired a missile over northern Japan into the Pacific in 1998.

"This issue concerns our autonomy. Nobody has a right to slander that right," the Kyodo News agency quoted North Korean Foreign Ministry official Ri Pyong Dok as telling Japanese reporters.

Kyodo also quoted Ri as saying the North is not bound by the joint declaration at international nuclear disarmament talks last year or a missile moratorium agreed to by Tokyo and Pyongyang in 2002. North Korean leader Kim Jong Il reaffirmed the moratorium - in place in practice since 1999 - in 2004.

Ri told reporters his remarks represented Pyongyang's official line on the matter, but refused to comment on whether the North would push ahead with the missile test, saying it was inappropriate for a diplomat to give further information, Kyodo said.

The harsh rhetoric could sour hopes that North Korea might scuttle the test in the face of international criticism. But it was unclear whether the comments indicated a willingness to go ahead with the launch, or reflected North Korea's penchant for threatening bluster as a bargaining tactic.

The international campaign to block the launch widened Tuesday, with the French government and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan calling for a halt to test preparations.

"I hope that the leaders of North Korea will listen to and hear what the world is saying. We are all worried," said Annan, who was in Paris. He called for all parties in the standoff to avoid an escalation of tensions.

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