"I know there is a lot of concern and I share that concern about the missed deadline," Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a forum in Washington.

But he added, "I think we can put ourselves into the position that by the latter part of this calendar year, we can get through phase one and phase two and for us to work on phase three." Under the February 13 deal, North Korea was given 60 days to shut down the Yongbyon plant and allow international inspectors back into the country in exchange for energy aid.

The second phase requires North Korea to disable the plant, from which experts say it has produced enough plutonium to make up to a dozen nuclear bombs, and also to open up its nuclear inventory, including a controversial highly enriched uranium program.

Hill was hopeful that illicit North Korean funds frozen in a Macau bank and scheduled to have been returned by March 15 under the nuclear accord would be freed up soon. The process was said to have been held up by "technical issues."

Once the funds were released and the North Koreans shut down the Yongbyon facility, efforts could be made to fast track the denuclearization process to catch up with lost time, Hill said.

The "disabling" process could be swift -- taking only "weeks not months" -- and ways could be found to "front-load" some of the energy aid to North Korea, he said.

"We can even recover some time lost in the first tranche," he said. "We can believe we can get this second tranche done in this calendar year."

The timetable for the North to disarm was adopted at six-party talks involving the United States, China, Russia, the two Koreas and Japan.

The United States, China, Russia and South Korea agreed to provide 50,000 tonnes of fuel oil or the economic or humanitarian equivalent once the initial steps were taken by North Korea.

The financially starved regime would receive an additional 950,000 tonnes of oil or the economic equivalent if it closed down all of its nuclear facilities under the agreement.

The third phase of North Korea's denuclearization process involves the actual dismantling and removal of the nuclear facilities and Pyongyang's accounting for the up to 60 kilograms of plutonium estimated to have been produced by the Yongbyon plant.

Hill admitted there would be "another set of hard bargaining" during the final phase.

But he chided pundits calling for the scrapping of the nuclear accord with North Korea even though the Stalinist regime had assured it would launch steps to end its nuclear program once it received the unfrozen funds.

Despite North Korea's past broken promises, the United States "continues to believe that the best way to achieve denuclearization is to move step-by-step," he said.

"The North Koreans have repeatedly signalled to us, they have signalled internationally, that they are prepared to implement the February 13 agreement once they get their money.

"So those people who say, how can you be so patient, why don't you simply cut this off today. First of all, they really ought to come forward with what we should do the next day -- why is cutting it off better than giving more time in order to work."

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