SEOUL, August 28, 2009 (AFP) - South and North Korea were Friday close to agreement on restarting reunions for families separated for half a century, the latest sign of an easing of tensions after more than a year of hostility.

In a joint statement later Friday the two sides will announce a new round of reunions from September 26 to October 1, according to Yonhap news agency, quoting officials at talks at the North's Mount Kumgang resort.

The reunions, organized by each side's Red Cross, will be the first for two years.

The hardline communist North suspended the programme after a conservative government took power in Seoul in February 2008 and announced a tougher line on cross-border relations.

The reunions for families separated since the 1950-53 war will be held at Mount Kumgang just before Korea's Chuseok (thanksgiving) holiday.

Yonhap said the South withdrew its demand that the joint statement refer to South Korean prisoners of war and civilians believed kidnapped by the North during the Cold War era.

Seoul says 494 of its people, mostly fishermen, were seized in the decades following the war and more than 500 prisoners of war were never sent home in 1953.

Pyongyang insists it is not holding anyone against their will even though some abductees have escaped to the South.

"As the North is limiting these talks to the reunions around Chuseok, we are going to give priority to that issue," Yonhap quoted a South Korean official as saying.

Seoul also dropped demands for the reunions to be held on a regular basis to accommodate many elderly people who die before having a chance to meet loved ones.

"North Korea has insisted this meeting remain focused on the Chuseok event, so we won't keep pushing for (regularisation)," the official said.

The North and South agreed to select 100 people on each side and locate their relatives across the border.

Tens of thousands of families have been separated by barbed wire and minefields since the war. There are no civilian mail or telephone services between the two countries.

The reunions normally last for two or three days.

The North's leader Kim Jong-Il and a visiting Seoul business chief agreed this month the reunions should resume around Thanksgiving. They also agreed to restart tourist trips to the North by South Koreans.

Last weekend Kim sent a team to Seoul to mourn ex-president Kim Dae-Jung and to hold talks with current leader Lee Myung-Bak.

The overtures follow a year of sabre-rattling, including missile launches and a nuclear test this year which brought tougher United Nations sanctions.

The North is also trying to ease tensions with Washington. This month it freed two US reporters after ex-president Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang.

It has expressed willingness for talks with Washington to end the nuclear standoff.

US special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth will travel to Asian capitals soon but not to Pyongyang, the State Department said Thursday.