Rice says U.S. has means to verify North Korea statement

By Susan Cornwell

KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - The United States believes it has the means to verify North Korea's estimate of its nuclear programmes, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday.

North Korea was expected to declare between 30-50 kg (66-110 lb) of plutonium in the document, given to the Chinese government on Thursday, a senior U.S. administration official said separately, but added that "our estimates are greater".

Verification, which meant calculating and resolving differences in estimates, could take "months and months" he said.

"We believe we have ... the means by which to verify the completeness and accuracy of this document," Rice told reporters in Kyoto, Japan, where she is attending a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) countries.

"For instance, in order to verify the plutonium number that the North Koreans have given, we have been given documents, but we also are expecting access to the reactor core, to the waste pool," she said, referring to North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon.

Neither Rice, nor the senior official who also spoke to reporters in Kyoto, have seen the declaration, which is some 60 pages long, but expect to get it shortly.

"This is an important first step, but a first step reward denuclearisation, which means a verifiable end to all North Korea's nuclear programmes," Rice said.

The senior official said efforts were being made to set up a meeting soon of the lead negotiators in the six-party talks that led to the agreement requiring North Korea to produce its nuclear accounting. Those countries are the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the United States.