Bush was asked by reporters whether he was extending his war on terrorism to states previously believed by the United States to be engaged in developing such arms.

"Well, clearly in terms of North Korea, we want North Korea to allow inspectors in to determine whether or not they are," he replied.

"We've had that discussion with North Korea. I made it very clear to North Korea that, in order for us to have relations with them, that we want to know, are they developing weapons of mass destruction, and they ought to stop proliferating."

Under a 1994 US-North Korea deal, an international consortium is providing two light water reactors to the North after the communist state agreed to freeze its suspected nuclear weapons program.

But under the deal, Pyongyang is only required to admit inspectors when a significant portion of the project as defined in the agreement is completed. Owing to delays, groundbreaking on the reactors started only in September.

According to experts' estimates, the inspections to verify that North Korea has dismantled its nuclear capability may now not be due until late 2004 or 2005.

It was not clear if Bush was pressing for inspections to take place sooner -- though his administration has urged Pyongyang to improve verification and transparency, while insisting it does not seek to renegotiate the terms of the 1994 deal.

An administration official said on condition of anonymity that Bush wanted the whole Agreed Framework process to move forward more quickly -- and blamed Pyongyang for the delays.

Washington has also expressed serious concern about North Korea's missile program, one of the few sources of foreign currency for the impoverished Stalinist state.

The administration of former president Bill Clinton fell just short of concluding a pact to end it late last year -- though Bush aides have criticised the draft deal, arguing that it feel well short of verification guarantees.

Bush has made no secret of his strong suspicion of North Korea. In March, he infuriated the Stalinist state by saying he did not trust its leader Kim Jong-Il.

And although Bush cleared the way for a resumption of talks with Pyongyang in June, officials have not acknowledged publicly that any meaningful contacts have taken place, amid a rhetorical battle between Washington and Pyongyang.

"We have still to hear back from them," an administration official said Monday.

North Korea has publicly balked at what it says are US terms for the proposed dialogue : Washington has said it wants to talk about troop reductions on the Korean peninsula among other issues.

The North wants Washington to drop its name from a list of states backing terrorism. Pyongyang sees the US blacklist as one of the main obstacles to improving relations.

The Bush administration has also singled out North Korea along with Iran, Libya and Syria of developing and producing germ warfare agents in effective violation of an international ban on germ warfare.

"North Korea likely has the capability to produce sufficient quantities of biological agents for military purposes within weeks of a decision to do so," Under Secretary of State John Bolton said in at a germ warfare conference last week in Geneva.

Bush's remarks, the latest in a long line of stern rhetoric directed at North Korea came as officials from South Korea, Japan and the United States prepared to meet in San Francisco Tuesday to coordinate policy towards the Stalinist state.

Euphoria sparked by the inter-Korean summit in 2000 and a visit to Pyongyang by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright has dimmed markedly since Bush came to power.

The stalemate in US-North Korean talks has coincided with an unraveling of the inter-Korean rapprochement talks, in a blow for the "sunshine" policy of South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung.

Nevertheless, State Department officials insist that Washington is still ready for talks with Pyongyang "any time, any place."

James Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia, said last week he was "hopeful" US-North Korea talks could soon be restarted.

"I don't conclude from this that any hope of dialogue with North Korea is ended. North Korea is a strange place, their statements are mostly negative, but every now and then they stick something in there that suggests that maybe they do want to talk after all."

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