TOKYO: - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Tokyo last night with a warning to North Korea that it needs to live up to its commitments to dismantle its nuclear programmes.

'The North Koreans have already agreed to dismantling,' she said. 'We expect them to fulfil the obligations that they entered into.'

During the six-nation talks that took place last year but have since stalled, Pyongyang agreed to stop its weapons work in exchange for economic and other incentives.

Mrs Clinton made the comments en route to Asia for meetings with leaders of Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia.

The first US top diplomat in half a century to start her job with an Asia trip, Mrs Clinton praised US ties with the region on her arrival at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

'I have chosen Asia on my first trip as secretary of state to convey that America's relationships across the Pacific are indispensable to addressing the challenges and seizing the opportunities of the 21st century,' she said.

'By strengthening our historic Asia alliances, starting right here in Japan, and forging new partnerships with emerging nations, we can begin together to build networks around the world to help us solve problems that none of us can solve alone.'

Early yesterday, North Korea fuelled speculation that it was preparing to test-fire a missile by asserting it would go ahead with a rocket launch as part of what it called a space programme.

Mrs Clinton had warned North Korea against any 'provocative action and unhelpful rhetoric' last week.

On her plane trip, she implicitly criticised the Bush administration for abandoning the so- called 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea, which called for the North to give up its plutonium-based weapons programme.

The framework collapsed when Washington accused Pyongyang of maintaining a separate highly enriched uranium programme. As a result, she said, the North had restarted and accelerated its plutonium programme, allowing it to build a nuclear device that it detonated in 2006.

Mrs Clinton has said one goal of her current trip to Asia was to demonstrate a new US commitment to work with its leaders.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE