New York: White House officials have ordered the nation's intelligence agencies to conduct a review of North Korea's claim that it could produce bomb-grade plutonium without detection by the US.

The order to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other agencies that have long monitored North Korea's nuclear programme was prompted by the blunt and direct nature of the North's declaration last week, during negotiations in Beijing, that it was already a nuclear power, a media report said quoting senior administration officials.

It said it had completed reprocessing of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods that could provide enough plutonium for four to six additional weapons.

So far the United States has not been able to verify North Korea's claim to have produced weapons- grade plutonium, the 'New York Times' said.

Until last week, North Korea had never boasted about its nuclear weapons capability, insisting it was only interested in producing electric power from nuclear reactors.

The change in tactic, the administration's Korea experts believe, may be an effort to raise the price of dismantling its programme, if President George Bush was willing to strike a deal to disarm the country.

"We think they are bluffing", a senior administration official told the 'Times'. "But we felt the necessity to go back and review every possibility, in the off-chance that we missed something."

PTI