ElBaradei, whose International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors were kicked out of North Korea in December 2002, said in an interview with AFP and another news agency that Pyongyang's escalation by possibly testing an atomic bomb was "nuclear blackmail".

ElBaradei said North Korea needs "to understand that the international community has zero tolerance for any new country to go for a nuclear weapon."

"I hope they will not test. I hope every leader who has contact with North Korea is on the phone today with North Korean authorities to dissuade them from testing," ElBaradei said on the sidelines of a non-proliferation conference at United Nations headquarters in New York.

ElBaradei said a North Korean nuclear test would have "disastrous political repercussions in Asia and the rest of the world."

He said "there could be a major environmental fallout which again could lead to dissemination of radioactivity in the region."

"So enough rituals. Now the time has come after 12 years since we reported North Korea in non-compliance to the (UN) Security Council ... (for all the concerned parties) urgently to bite the bullet and find a comprehensive solution and avoid this escalating nuclear danger," ElBaradei said.

The IAEA verifies compliance with international safeguards mandated by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

ElBaradei said nuclear tests by North Korea "would simply add insult to (the) injury" it has already done to the world's non-proliferation regime.

The US government warned Friday that any nuclear weapons test by North Korea would be a provocative act, as reports suggested an underground nuclear experiment could take place in the Stalinist state.

The New York Times said in a report Friday that US officials familiar with satellite and intelligence data believed North Korea was building a reviewing stand and filling in a tunnel, signs of a potential underground nuclear test.

"I don't want to get into discussing intelligence matters, but what I would say is that if North Korea did take such a step, that would just be another provocative act that would further isolate it from the international community," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The United States, together with North Korea's neighbours, has been working through six-party talks to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.

The talks which group the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States have been stalled for nearly a year since a third round of talks last June.

The North has boycotted the talks, citing "hostile" US policy, and has publicly announced it has nuclear weapons and could manufacture more of them.

ElBaradei said it was not too late for negotiations to work.

"There is no time ever when people cannot talk. Things could get worse but people today, tomorrow, after tomorrow, they would have to understand that there is no other solution to the North Korean issue rather than sitting around the table reaching a comprehensive settlement, a settlement that is perceived by everybody to be fair and equitable.

"The earlier we do that, the better for everybody," ElBaradei said.

He said "everybody knows what needs to be done," namely "to give North Korea security assurances" and "to respond to (their) economic and humanitarian needs" while Pyongyang must give up on trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

North Korea is believed to have one or two crude nuclear bombs, according to US intelligence reports.

International jitters were heightened on Sunday when North Korea test-fired a short-range missile, although US, South Korean and Japanese officials refused to link the incident to Pyongyang's drive for nuclear arms.

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