Hill: I have not broken out the cigars and champagne quite yet. - REUTERS

BEIJING (Reuters):

North Korea agreed yesterday to return to six-party talks on dismantling its atomic weapons just weeks after staging its first nuclear test, drawing cautious welcome from President George W. Bush and Asian powers.

Envoys from North Korea, the United States and China met in Beijing and agreed to restart the stalled talks in the near future, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website, promising an end to a year-long hiatus in the negotiations.

Bush welcomed North Korea's agreement to return to the nuclear talks, but added he would send teams to Asia to ensure United Nations Security Council sanctions on the budding nuclear power were enforced.

"Obviously we've still got a lot of work to do," Bush told reporters in Washington.

The other three countries involved in the talks are South Korea, Japan and Russia. A fifth round of talks in Beijing broke off last November without progress and North Korea later protested over a United States crackdown on its international finances.

Breakthrough meeting

After the breakthrough meeting in Beijing, Washington's envoy, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, told a news conference there that he wanted "rapid progress" from the next talks, possibly in November or December.

But he said fully settling the nuclear stand-off was likely to be difficult and time-consuming.

"We are a long way from our goal still," he said. "I have not broken out the cigars and champagne quite yet."

Hill spelled out a contentious bundle of issues that would preoccupy negotiators and could again derail talks, including the U.S. financial restrictions, how to ensure that North Korea kept any disarmament commitments, and the diplomatic damage done by Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test.

North Korea made no explicit promise not to conduct any more tests, Hill said, adding that a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Pyongyang remained in force.

"I think it's self-evident they should not engage in such provocations," Hill said of further tests.

The next six-party talks will address North Korea's concerns with the U.S. financial restrictions, possibly through a working group, he said, adding that Pyongyang needs to abandon "illicit activities" that the U.S. has said include currency counterfeiting and drug trafficking.

Washington announced steps to restrict North Korean access to international financial networks days after the six-party group reached broad agreement on September 19, 2005, toward negotiating an end to North Korea's nuclear weapons and drawing the country out of isolation.

Hill said North Korea had not made lifting the banking restrictions a condition of talks.