A foreign ministry spokesman, giving details for the first time of a verification agreement with the United States, made it clear that outside inspectors would not have full powers to check the North's nuclear declaration made in June.

The spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency that international inspection standards such as sampling were not part of the October agreement which rescued a six-nation disarmament pact.

"Insisting on the so-called international standards and trying to demand more than what has been agreed upon between the DPRK (North Korea) will be considered as a house search and breach of sovereignty," the statement said.

The North also said it had slowed down work to disable its plutonium-producing complex at Yongbyon in protest at delays by its negotiating partners in delivering promised energy aid.

The communist state, which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006, said it had reduced by half the rate at which it removes spent fuel rods from the reactor.

"In case the economic compensation continues to be delayed, the tempo of the disablement will be decreased accordingly, making it hard to predict the prospect of the six-party talks," the statement said.

The forum, grouping the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, has been meeting since 2003. Under a deal last year the North agreed to scrap its nuclear programmes in return for energy aid, diplomatic benefits and security guarantees.

The talks hit a major snag this autumn over ways to verify the nuclear declaration. Washington initially pressed for strict inspections to cover not only the admitted plutonium operation but also a suspected enriched uranium project and any proliferation activities.

The North in protest began work to restart its Yongbyon complex which it had shut last year. Washington eventually reached a deal in October with Pyongyang on verification and dropped it from a terrorism blacklist.

The US State Department said at the time the North had agreed to verification of all nuclear facilities, including its alleged uranium-based programme and suspected proliferation.

US officials said the deal allows for outside experts to visit both declared and undeclared sites, take and remove samples and equipment for analysis, view documents and interview staff.

However, visits to sites not included in the North's declaration delivered in June would require "mutual consent."

The North's statement Wednesday said verification would be confined to Yongbyon and would involve only field visits, confirmation of documents and interviews with technicians.

It said verification would be conducted only after all the promised energy aid -- one million tonnes of fuel oil or equivalent assistance -- had been delivered.

"This was utmost magnanimity the DPRK (North Korea) could show under the present situation where the deep-rooted mistrust and hostile relations exist between the DPRK and the US," it said.

The next round of six-party talks is due to agree details of verification and the delivery of energy aid but no date has yet been announced by talks host China.

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