North Korea accord reached

North Korea promised to give up its nuclear weapons programme yesterday, defusing a high-stakes crisis, but sceptics said the deal hammered out in Beijing was long on words and short on action.

South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China - the other players in the six-party talks - in exchange expressed a willingness to provide oil, energy aid and security guarantees.

Washington and Tokyo agreed to normalise ties with the impoverished and diplomatically isolated North, which pledged to rejoin the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

"The joint statement is the most important achievement in the two years since the start of six-party talks," said Chinese chief negotiator Wu Dawei. The seven-day session ended with a standing ovation by all delegates. In Washington, President George W. Bush said Pyongyang's compliance must be verified even as he cautiously welcomed the agreement.

Mr Bush said a promise by North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons programme was a "step forward in making this world a more secure place." But he added: "The question is, over time, will all parties adhere to the agreement?"

At the United Nations, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice predicted difficulties in verifying and implementing the deal.

"We now will turn to implementing agreements, implementing language, where we will have to tackle I'm sure quite difficult issues of verification of the dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear weapons programmes and other nuclear programmes," she told reporters.