"While we have made important progress ... much work remains ahead on the road to verifiable denuclearisation of the DPRK (the Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, told the IAEA's board of governors.

"We are still waiting for the DPRK to provide a complete and correct declaration of all its nuclear programmes, which was due on December 31, 2007," Schulte said in a speech, a copy of which was made available to reporters.

"It is critical that the DPRK provide the declaration as soon as possible, and that the declaration be correct and complete and include all nuclear weapons, programmes, materials and facilities," the ambassador said.

"The DPRK must also address concerns related to uranium enrichment programmes and activities."

Schulte was addresing the UN nuclear watchdog's board at its regular March meeting, where the stalled disarmament of North Korea was one of a series of topics under discussion alongside the crucial Iranian nuclear dossier.

Six-party talks -- grouping the United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia -- are at an impasse while awaiting North Korea's promised declaration of all its nuclear programmes.

The North staged its first nuclear test in October 2006. It later returned to six-party talks but missed an agreed end-of-2007 deadline for the declaration.

Pyongyang has said it submitted a full list in November. But the US insists it is still waiting for a complete declaration, including a full account of a suspected covert uranium enrichment programme and any proliferation moves.

Schulte said Washington wanted the IAEA to "play and important role in all states of the implementation of the DPRK's denuclearisation and return to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and IAEA safeguards."

IAEA personnel are monitoring and verifying the shutdown of North Korea's five nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and Taechon.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.