Yu will leave for the United States Tuesday and meet Rice in Washington on Wednesday, foreign ministry officials said Monday.

"The two ministers will discuss various pending issues, including North Korea's nuclear problem, ahead of the summit between presidents Lee Myung-Bak and George W. Bush," a ministry spokesman told AFP.

Lee, who took office last month, will meet Bush at Camp David from April 18-19, an encounter which Seoul hopes will strengthen the decades-old alliance.

"The main purpose of Yu's trip to the US is to prepare for a successful summit," the spokesman said.

Yu and Rice will also discuss a US-SKorean free trade agreement which has yet to be ratified by their legislatures, and a proposed visa waiver programme for South Koreans visiting the United States.

Six-party talks -- which group the United States, the two Koreas, China, Japan and Russia -- on dismantling the North's atomic programmes are currently stalled by disputes over its promised nuclear declaration.

Pyongyang says it gave Washington a list of its nuclear programmes in November, but Washington says it still awaits a "complete and correct" declaration.

Yu will also meet Defense Secretary Robert Gates and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Thursday. He then moves to New York to meet UN Secretary General and fellow countryman Ban Ki-moon on Friday.

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