New York: The Bush administration has decided to scrap the 1994 arms control accord with North Korea that has provided Western energy aid in return for the North's promise to freeze the development of nuclear weapons, senior administration officials said.

North Korea admitted two weeks ago that it was pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme, and accused the United States of taking steps that forced Pyongyang to nullify the accord.

The White House has since debated whether to end the accord, with some aides warning such a step could lead North Korea to even greater nuclear violations, a media report said.

For that reason, the report said the administration plans to caution North Korea of serious consequences if it tries to remove nuclear material now stored under international supervision at Yongbyon, the reactor site that was the centre piece of a previous nuclear standoff with North Korea in the early 1990's.

American diplomats visiting Beijing apparently asked China this week to convey that warning, though it is not clear whether the message has yet been delivered to the North Koreans, 'The New York Times' said.

The immediate practical effect of the decision to scrap the agreement is the halting of the annual shipments of 500,000 tons of fuel oil from the United States to North Korea.

Even if the clandestine North Korean programme effectively suspended the accord, the US administration's decision to formally abandon it sends a clear message. It signifies an American effort to pose a stark choice for North Korea, between abandoning all of its nuclear weapons programmes and facing near- total economic isolation, the paper said.

"We think the framework as we knew it is dead," one senior administration official said when questioned about the administration's strategy. "The North Koreans already told us they viewed it as 'nullified,'" he said.

More immediately, the 'Times' said abandoning the accord also means that the US will urge its allies, Japan and South Korea, to suspend, if not end, a multi-billion Dollar project to provide modern nuclear power plants to the North.

Ground has already been broken for proliferation-resistant reactors, designed to help North Korea provide basic electricity service to cities and towns that go dark every night, and to world war II-era factories that now barely operate. The reactors have not yet been delivered.

Other officials, the paper said, described a lengthy debate within the White House over the risks of abandoning the agreement altogether. "There are some who fear that it could tempt the North Koreans into a rapid breakout, to produce weapons as fast as they can," an official said.

North Korea, the paper says, acknowledged the programme in "defiant tones" after the US presented evidence that it had breached the accord.

Officials did not specify what consequences North Korea might face if it ignored American warnings, a sharp contrast to the approach being taken with Iraq.

PTI