North Korea should dismantle its nuclear weapons program first, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Wednesday.

"The agreement (reached at the six-party talks) spells out the sequencing, and it states North Korea first has to abandon its nuclear weapons and eliminate its nuclear programs in a verifiable way," McClellan said.

"It has to come into compliance with the nonproliferation treaty and the International Atomic Energy Agency. And once they take those steps, then we would be prepared to talk further at that time," McClellan said.

The spokesman said that if North Korea side needs time to reflect on the agreement, "we will give it to them."

The fourth round of six-party talks on the nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula concluded in Beijing on Monday with the adoption of a common statement, in which North Korea says it is committed to abandoning all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.

The common statement also declared that North Korea has the right to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, while other parties have expressed their respect and agreed to discuss, at an appropriate time, the subject of the provision of light-water reactor to North Korea.

North Korea insisted on Tuesday that it would not dismantle its nuclear weapons program until the United States gives it civilian nuclear reactors.

Meanwhile, the United States hailed North Korea commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, but stressed that North Korea will get light-water reactors only after it has gone so.

(Xinhua News Agency September 22, 2005)