Washington: The chief US envoy to North Korean nuclear talks has said that negotiators from six nations plan to gather next week in Beijing to discuss ways to disable the North's nuclear reactor.

Pressed by reporters, however, Christopher Hill would not discuss a possible distraction at the meeting, news reports about possible North Korean cooperation with Syria on a nuclear facility. Such reports are an "important reminder of the need to accelerate the process we're already engaged in," Hill said yesterday when asked if they would complicate the nuclear talks. "It does not change the goal we are aiming for."

A senior US nuclear official, Andrew Semmel, said yesterday that North Koreans were in Syria, and that the government in Damascus may have had contacts with "secret suppliers" to obtain nuclear equipment.

Hill would not discuss Semmel's comments, nor would he say whether the US would raise the Syria report with North Korea next week.

"Our concerns about proliferation have always been a part of the six-party process, and they'll continue to be," he said, referring to talks among North and South Korea, China, the US, Russia and Japan. Hill said talks would likely be in the middle of next week and last about three days.

North Korea agreed in a February accord to scrap its nuclear programmes in return for political concessions and aid. The North has shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facility, and negotiators are now discussing the next phase of the agreement: disclosing and disabling all nuclear facilities, which the North recently agreed to do by the end of the year.