SEOUL/TOKYO - THE United States and North Korea are near a compromise to save a crumbling nuclear deal, news reports said on Friday, while Japan said it could accept rewarding the North by taking it off a US terrorism blacklist.

Indications of a fresh deal came as North Korea has raised the stakes in the nuclear negotiations by apparently making sabre-rattling moves and barring UN monitors from its Soviet-era plant that makes bomb-grade plutonium.

ABC news quoted senior US officials as saying the North may be preparing for another nuclear test after it was seen moving cables and tunnelling at the site of its only previous test in October 2006.

South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo on Friday quoted government sources as saying North Korea and the United States were near an agreement on verifying Pyongyang's account of its nuclear programme that would prompt Washington to soon remove it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the Bush administration looked set to provisionally remove the North from the State Department's terrorism blacklist, as early as Friday.

The disarmament deal appeared to be in peril after Pyongyang, angry at not being removed from the list, vowed last month to rebuild its Yongbyon nuclear plant. Once removed from the list, the isolated North would see an end to many trade sanctions.

Japan has previously voiced its reservations, feeling that it may not be an appropriate move to make without first resolving a long-simmering feud over Japanese nationals kidnapped decades ago by North Korean agents.

Japan's foreign minister said he did not know if the United States would go ahead with delisting, but that he would not see it as a problem if it was deemed as yielding results.

'We expect the United States to tell us before making a final decision and if we think that it is enough, or enough to some extent, to resolve the nuclear issue, then I think it would be fine,' Mr Hirofumi Nakasone told a news conference.

Tokyo also said it would extend its sanctions on North Korea, including a ban on imports, for another six months after they expire on Monday, because of a lack of progress on both the issues of denuclearisation and abductees.

Missiles and envoys
US nuclear envoy Christopher Hill, who went to Pyongyang last week to save the disarmament-for-aid deal the North struck with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, has mostly been silent about his discussions.

The South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo reported diplomatic sources as saying as a result of the Hill trip, the North agreed to allow nuclear inspectors into the secretive country for incremental checks.

The reports of a deal came as North Korea deployed more than 10 short-range missiles on its west coast for a possible launch, the Chosun Ilbo reported.

On Tuesday, the North fired two short-range missiles into the Yellow Sea in a move seen as consistent with its tendency at times of political tension to display its readiness to take a hard and defiant line.

US State Department spokesman Mr Sean McCormack said North Korea's actions in the past month had not been helpful and urged Pyongyang not to take steps that would make matters worse. -- REUTERS