SINGAPORE - A TOP US negotiator is due in Singapore late on Wednesday ahead of an expected meeting with his North Korean counterpart in a bid to conclude a deal over the communist North's nuclear weapons programmes.

Christopher Hill was to meet on Thursday with North Korean officials, including his counterpart Kim Kye-Gwan, but the time of the talks had not been finalised, a US embassy spokesman said.

Mr Hill was to travel to Singapore after meeting earlier on Wednesday in Tokyo with his Japanese counterpart Akitaka Saiki as well as South Korean nuclear envoy Kim Sook.

Kim Kye-Gwan, the North's envoy, arrived late on Tuesday in a black Mercedes-Benz at the residence of North Korea's ambassador to Singapore.

Japanese television cameramen swarmed around the car but Mr Kim made no comment.

The US and North Korea differ on what was agreed when Hill made a trip to Pyongyang from October 1-3 to try to save a shaky February 2007 disarmament deal.

After reaching an apparent agreement on verification procedures, the US announced it would drop the North - which tested an atomic weapon in October 2006 - from a terrorism blacklist, and the North reversed plans to restart its plutonium-producing nuclear plants.

However, North Korea insists it never agreed to the removal of samples of atomic material.

It says the outside verification of its nuclear inventory, submitted in June, will involve only field visits, confirmation of documents and interviews with technicians.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a meeting in Beijing on Monday, between all six nations involved in talks on the North's nuclear programme, aims to finalise a plan allowing for outside verification of Pyongyang's disarmament.

Beijing, though, has yet to announce a date for the six-party meeting.

Mr Hill and the negotiators from Japan and South Korea agreed Wednesday to seek a document on a framework for the practical verification of the North's de-nuclearisation.

'There should be no room for misunderstanding or distortion when we actually begin verification,' Mr Saiki told a news conference.

'The six parties must agree to specify exactly what we are supposed to do in the form of documents,' he said. 'We have agreed on this basic point.' -- AFP