Tokyo:Japan said today that North Korea does not deserve immediate removal from a US list of sponsors of terrorism, saying that more work needs to be done to verify a nuclear disarmament deal.

"We are not in a situation where we can see an immediate removal from the list of sponsor countries of terrorism," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference.

"We are telling the United States that there are more points to confirm," the Japanese government spokesman said, pointing to Pyongyang s decision to bar the UN atomic watchdog s inspectors from its nuclear installations.

"This is the issue on which Japan and the United States should have close consultations," he said.

The Washington Post and Fox News said that the United States could delist North Korea as soon as today, meeting a key demand of the communist state, which has suspended cooperation in the six-nation disarmament deal.

Japan has tense relations with North Korea. Today, the cabinet extended sweeping sanctions on the impoverished state for another six months, endorsing an earlier decision by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Japan earlier urged the United States, its main ally, not to delist North Korea, pressing first for more information on the fate of Japanese civilians who were kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime s spies.

The United States has been holding off on delisting North Korea, insisting it must have agreement on verification of a declaration North Korea submitted about its nuclear programme.
Source : PTI