Pyongyang is unlikely to wait for the declaration to be fully verified before disbanding its nuclear facilities, in a bid to hasten denuclearization under a six-nation deal stalled for nearly five months by a dispute over the document, the officials said.

Christopher Hill, the top US nuclear envoy to the six-party talks, was upbeat Thursday that North Korea would soon submit the declaration to China, which chairs the multilateral negotiations.

"Things are moving ahead," he told reporters after attending a Korea Economic Institute (KEI) forum on Capitol Hill.

One Asian diplomat told AFP the declaration could be provided as early as next week when Hill is expected to travel to the region.

North Korea has already provided to the United States 18,000 documents of operating and production records for its key atomic reactor in Yongbyon, which the hardline communist state is disabling under the aid-for-denuclearization deal.

Hill indicated that North Korea would push ahead with dismantlement after submitting the declaration instead of waiting for full verification, and effectively ruled out six-party talks to specifically pore over the document.

"I think the logic of it is they submit it to the Chinese, the Chinese make sure the rest of us get a copy of it and then we all look at it and we don't need any six party meeting (to discuss the declaration)," Hill said.

South Korea's chief nuclear negotiator Kim Sook said in Seoul this week that after handing over its nuclear declaration, North Korea planned to blow up part of its Yongbyon atomic complex to symbolise its commitment to disarmament.

Hill said that all parties had "a fairly good idea of what is going to be in" the declaration, and the denuclearization efforts should not be bogged down by the complex verification exercise.

Washington, he said, would push for a plenary meeting of the six parties to be held "very, very quickly" after North Korea provided the declaration in an apparent bid to discuss the final phase of denuclearization.

"Verification is a process that can take months, so you don't want to wait for all the verification before you then move to a six-party meeting, for example," Hill said.

North Korea has already shut down the Yongbyon facility and is close to disabling it under the first two stages of its denuclearization exercise, which Washington wants to see fully completed before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

The final stage of the six-party deal will require North Korea, which fired a nuclear bomb in 2006, to dismantle its nuclear facilities and surrender all atomic material.

Hill said he would travel "soon" to China and Russia for more consultations following those he held in Washington this week with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan.

"We want to make sure that all our partners in this process are well briefed on that and are working together," he said.

The United States is expected to remove North Korea from its state sponsors of terrorism blacklist and other sanctions and establish diplomatic ties with its arch rival if Pyongyang sticks to plans.

In addition to plutonium producing activities, Washington said North Korea's declaration must also clear up suspicions about North Korea's alleged secret uranium enrichment program and suspected involvement in building a nuclear reactor in Syria on a site that Israel bombed last September.

The North denies both activities. Under a reported deal, it will merely "acknowledge" US concerns about the two issues in a confidential separate document to Washington.

earlier related report
US fuels hopes NKorea will hand over nuclear declaration
The United States fueled hopes Friday that North Korea could hand over a full inventory of its atomic weapons programs as early as next week when its nuclear negotiator travels to Beijing and Moscow.

State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said negotiator Christopher Hill, who leaves Washington Monday for Beijing, was open to meeting his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan during his trip to China and Russia.

"The usual rules apply (for such a meeting). Nothing scheduled, but the North Koreans know he's traveling and if they see an interest or desire to do so, they'll arrange something," Casey said.

Hill has previously met with Kim in the Chinese capital. As chair of the six-party nuclear disarmament negotiations, China is tasked with receiving the inventory or declaration from North Korea.

A State Department official told AFP on the condition of anonymity that North Korea's mission at the United Nations in New York had been informed of Hill's travel plans "in case they might be interested in having a meeting."

But he said he did not have "any more details at this point" when asked if North Korea replied to the message.

Anticipating Hill's visit to Asia, one Asian diplomat told AFP on Thursday that Pyongyang could hand the declaration as early as next week.

And Hill himself told reporters on Monday that "we're getting to the point where the declaration is coming" even if he could not say whether it would be days or weeks.

He said consultations were all the more important with his counterparts in the six-party talks as the disarmament process quickens.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was cautious when asked whether a declaration could come within a week or two.

"I think we're going to have to wait and see. I think the trip is an important one that Chris Hill will undertake," Perino told AFP.

"I mean, while we are hopeful that we are nearing a period where we could get a full and accurate declaration from the North Koreans, we have reason to be skeptical that it could happen on a certain time frame," she said.

North Korea raised hopes it would soon hand over the declaration after giving the United States earlier this month 18,000 documents of operating and production records for the five-megawatt reactor and reprocessing plant in Yongbyon.

US officials say the documents will help verify the declaration when it is eventually submitted.

Hill will be in Beijing from May 27 to May 29, Moscow from May 29 to May 31, and in Sweden June 1 for the Stockholm-China Forum, hosted by the German Marshall Fund, before returning to the United States on June 2, Casey said.

He said the US envoy will hold talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts in the negotiations after having met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Washington on Monday, Casey said.

The North, which staged a nuclear test in October 2006, is disabling its plutonium-producing reactor and other plants under a six-party deal reached last year with the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea.

But disputes over the declaration due December 31 have blocked the start of the final phase of the process -- the permanent dismantling of the plants and the handover of all material.

In return for total denuclearization, the North would receive energy aid, a lifting of US sanctions, the establishment of diplomatic relations with Washington and a formal peace treaty.

North Korea also missed an end-of-year deadline to completely disable its nuclear plants.

In addition to the declared plutonium operation, Washington said the declaration must clear up suspicions about an alleged secret uranium enrichment program and suspected involvement in building a nuclear reactor in Syria on a site that Israel bombed last September.

The North denies both activities. Under a reported deal, it will merely "acknowledge" US concerns about the two issues in a confidential separate document to Washington.

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