Hill, after a meeting with his North Korean and Chinese counterparts to six-party talks, said Pyongyang had agreed to return to the talks as early as November without conditions.

Additionally Pyongyang promised to abide by the pledge to scrap its nuclear weapons made at the forum in September 2005.

"We all reaffirmed, including the North Koreans, our commitment to the September statement and the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Hill told reporters.

The discussions on Tuesday in Beijing involved Hill, his North Korean counterpart to the six-party talks, Kim Kye-Gwan and Chinese envoy Wu Dawei.

"They did not make any conditions," Hill said.

"For us it was very important that no-one should create conditions for attending the talks."

North Korea pulled out of the six-nation talks in November last year in protest at US financial sanctions imposed against it for alleged counterfeiting and money laundering by Pyongyang.

North Korea had insisted since then that it would not return to the talks until the financial sanctions were lifted.

However Hill said that North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan had told him on Tuesday that Pyongyang was now ready to deal with the issue of the financial sanctions in the six-party forum.

"They wanted our reassurance that we would address the issue of the financial measures in the six-party process," Hill said.

In what was seen as a major breakthrough last September, North Korea committed to giving up its nuclear weapons in return for security guarantees, normalisation of relations, energy and other aid.

Within hours, however, North Korea attached conditions to the deal and in November announced it was boycotting further talks.

Meanwhile, South Korea yesterday welcomed North Korea's decision to return to stalled six-party talks on its nuclear programme.

"The government welcomes the agreement, reached at a meeting of the United States, North Korea and China, on the resumption of six-party talks," foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-Ho said.

China's foreign ministry said the agreement came at surprise talks involving nuclear envoys from the three countries.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified foreign ministry official here as saying the six-party talks may restart sometime in November.