US to remove North Korea from terror list soon: Report

Washington, Oct 10 (Xinhua) The US may remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism Friday, a media report said.

'The Bush administration appears poised to provisionally remove North Korea from the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism, perhaps as soon as today (Friday),' the Washington Post reported quoting government sources.

The sources said they had been told that the delisting would take place as soon as Friday, based on Pyongyang's willingness to show cooperation in the verification plan, according to the report.

The move would keep alive a faltering effort to eliminate Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme, the report said without giving details.

'This is an action-for-action process,' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said of the settlement of nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula Thursday.

'As North Korea meets its obligations, we are fully prepared to meet our obligations,' he said.

On June 27, North Korea destroyed a cooling tower of its atomic reactor to demonstrate its commitment to nuclear disarmament.

In the same month US President George W. Bush promised to delist North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism but never took action.

North Korea stopped disabling its nuclear facilities in August in response to Washington's failure to remove the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.