Hill will meet both Japanese and South Korean officials during his talks in Japan before he visits China for consultations with his Chinese counterparts, acting State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.

"He will be departing tomorrow, Wednesday, arriving in Japan on Thursday, where he will do six-party talk consultations with the government of Japan as well as some South Korean officials," Gallegos said.

The South Korean foreign ministry reported earlier that Hill would meet counterparts Kim Sook of South Korea and Akitaka Saiki of Japan in Tokyo. The last such three-way meeting was in Washington on May 18-19.

"Friday he (Hill) will be heading to China for further consultations," Gallegos added without mentioning Kim Sook and Akitaka Saiki. "And we will have more details on the balance of his itinerary as they firm it up."

Asked if Hill could meet his North Korean counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan, Gallegos replied: "I don't see that on the schedule right now. There (are) always possibilities."

Hill has met previously with Kim in Beijing, which chairs the six-party talks.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping meanwhile arrived Tuesday in North Korea for talks, state press said, in a visit that could push forward discussions on the denuclearisation of the communist country.

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 a full declaration of its nuclear activities 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.

North Korea raised hopes it would 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.

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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