BEIJING, Nov. 19 (Reuters) – China wants expanded access to North Korean ports to help an economic revitalization scheme for a landlocked and struggling northeastern province, and may pay to improve its poor communist neighbor's infrastructure.

Han Changfu, the governor of Jilin province, said on Wednesday that China is in talks with North Korea about using the North's ports to ship goods for the new Changchun-Jilin-Tumen pilot economic development zone.

''If both sides believe that it will be beneficial to use the ports, then we will do it,'' Han told Reuters after a news conference in Beijing to unveil the project.

China already uses some North Korean ports to handle trade for its northeastern provinces. Trade between Jilin and North Korea reached $247 million last year, Han said.

In October, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to strengthen bonds with isolated North Korea during a visit to Pyongyang, and the port proposal appears to be another step in that direction.

Wen also announced China would help build a new bridge at another part of the border.

While China has in the past few years poured billions of dollars into roads, railways and airports to boost the fortunes of its old industrial heartlands in the ''rust belt'' northeast, neighboring North Korea has been mired in poverty.