"We'll see by their actions how serious they are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters, saying Washington was eager to resume six-party talks aimed at ending the tense standoff over North Korea's atomic efforts.

"We look forward to the next round of talks. We hope that those can occur soon and that we can talk about how to move forward," he said. "We have not set any preconditions for the next round of talks."

Other US officials said they had not been formally notified of North Korea's willingness, expressed to a visiting US congressional delegation, to resume the talks, which also group China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

"I'm not sure the North Koreans have said anything terrifically new," said a senior US official, who asked not to be named. "What we're waiting to see is if they really do show up or not."

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Representative Curt Weldon, who headed the US delegation, had briefed US embassy officials in Seoul that the North Koreans were ready to rejoin the talks, "perhaps soon."

"We hope that North Korean statements do, indeed, presage a return to the talks," Boucher said. "North Korea has not yet been in touch with the other parties to the talks to inform them of any decision or any intentions."

The statement by North Korea, famously branded by President George W. Bush a member of the "axis of evil," came at the end of a four-day visit to Pyongyang by the US lawmakers.

The official Korean Central News Agency said the Stalinist Asian state was ready to respect the United States as a friend and rejoin the nuclear talks.

But it said the offer could be withdrawn if Bush, due to be inaugurated next week for a second four-year term, "slanders" North Korea and interferes with its internal affairs.

North Korea attended three rounds of inconclusive discussions, and shunned a fourth round scheduled for September, complaining of "hostile" US policies.

Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who headed the six-member delegation from the House Armed Services Committee, said North Korea could return to the negotiating table "in a matter of weeks."

Boucher said Washington would be consulting with the other parties and reiterated the United States' readiness to resume the negotiations that bogged down last year.

But he added, "Any discussions in the talks, we maintain, must address the full range of North Korea's nuclear programs, including its uranium enrichment program."

Boucher said the United States was still awaiting a response to a comprehensive proposal it had put on the table and was prepared to discuss ideas put forth by Pyongyang.

"The goal is to make real progress, and so we would hope that the North Koreans would deal seriously with these issues and come prepared to discuss how to make real progress in resolving these difficulties," he said.

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