The decision by Japan, South Korea and the United States to extend the freeze is aimed at making Pyongyang completely abandon its nuclear development programs, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.

The project had been promoted by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), an international consortium set up in 1995. Board members consist of Japan, the European Union, South Korea and the United States.

KEDO's board is expected to formally adopt the agreement at a meeting scheduled for October 13 in New York, the Yomiuri said.

Japanese foreign ministry officials were not available for immediate comment.

A spokesman for the consortium said in May that the board did not enjoy the unanimity required to resume construction of the light-water reactors when the one-year suspension expires on December 1.

The multi-billion dollar plan to build two 1,000 megawatt light water nuclear reactors, deemed less suitable for weapons grade plutonium production, arose from a 1994 anti-nuclear deal between Washington and Pyongyang.

But the United States considers the deal, known as the Agreed Framework, ruptured after accusing Pyongyang in 2002 of launching a prohibited program to enrich uranium for weapons production.

Since then Pyongyang has thrown out international inspectors, unfrozen its Yongbyon nuclear plant and pulled out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.

The KEDO board announced the suspension of its project -- effective December 1, 2003 -- in November last year.

Construction work on the reactors began in 1998 and is only one-third finished, although completion of the project was scheduled for 2003, according to the North Koreans.

Experts say it would take at least five more years to finish the complex.

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