Reports from several countries have said the United States is close to removing North Korea from the blacklist in the hope of saving a crumbling six-country nuclear disarmament deal.

But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said "no decision has been taken yet" on delisting North Korea, after saying that the United States and its negotiating partners were still discussing verification steps.

"This has been about getting the details right on a verification regime that we hope will move this process forward," said McCormack during a daily press briefing in Washington.

In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said North Korea does not deserve immediate removal from the blacklist because more work needs to be done to verify disarmament.

"It's a consensus-driven mechanism," McCormack said, adding Washington must make sure that "everybody understands all the details and that everybody is comfortable with all of the details."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke by telephone about North Korea earlier Friday with her counterparts Hirofumi Nakasone of Japan, Yu Myung-Hwan of South Korea and Yang Jiechi of China, McCormack said without elaborating.

She will speak in the next few days with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he added.

The Washington Post said a deal on delisting was close.

"Several sources said they had been told the delisting would take place as soon as today (Friday) based on North Korea's willingness to show cooperation on the verification plan," it reported.

The McClatchy-Tribune Information Services quoted unnamed State Department officials as saying a deal was being finalized after consultations with Japan.

One official said that, to satisfy Japan's concerns, US President George W. Bush would "provisionally" remove North Korea from the list, subject to Pyongyang signing a new agreement on nuclear verification

South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said both sides have virtually reached an agreement that the North will resume disabling its Yongbyon atomic complex in return for being taken off the list.

Yongbyon was shut down in July 2007 under an aid-for-disarmament deal agreed by the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan after the North staged its first nuclear weapons test in October 2006.

Washington insists on an agreement on procedures to verify the disarmament process before it can drop the North from the terror list, which blocks some bilateral and multilateral aid.

But Pyongyang, angered at the delay, is preparing to restart Yongbyon, which made plutonium for nuclear bombs.

Yu, South Korea's top diplomat, said that the United States is expected to decide soon whether to drop the North from its blacklist, but no final deal on "verification" inspections had yet been reached.

He confirmed verification would at present cover only the North's admitted plutonium bomb-making programme, and not a suspected secret enriched uranium programme -- a decision likely to anger US hardliners.

Seoul's Dong-A Ilbo daily said there were still differences on verification but that the United States would go ahead with delisting and continue with negotiations.

The McLatchy-Tribune report quoted US officials and outside experts saying the agreement could allow a greater verifying role for China.

Japan's Kyodo News said delisting would come by the end of this month.

Kawamura said: "We are telling the United States that there are more points to confirm," the government spokesman told a news conference, pointing to Pyongyang's move barring UN nuclear inspectors from all the Yongbyon plants.

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain said he was concerned the recent negotiations "appear not to have addressed the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, a serious omission and directly relevant to any decision about North Korea's support for terrorist activities."

Pyongyang's tough stance comes amid reports that its reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il suffered a stroke from which he is recovering, although it is unclear if the developments are connected.

The North was Friday marking the anniversary of its ruling communist party. Official media made no mention of any appearance by Kim, 66.

Tension has also risen with South Korea. The North's navy Thursday accused its Seoul counterpart of encroaching into northern waters, and bluntly warned that clashes could break out.

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