North Korea has invited UN weapons inspectors to Pyongyang to discuss the eventual dismantling of its nuclear programme, the head of the world's atomic watchdog said today.

Dr Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said he was looking forward to meeting the North Korean authorities to discuss how to “implement the freeze of (nuclear) facilities" and the “eventual dismantlement of these facilities".

“According to the letter, they would like to improve and normalise the relationship with the agency and hope to go back to being a member of the agency,” Dr ElBaradei told reporters in Vienna after meeting the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

An IAEA spokeswoman said that Dr ElBaradei would probably travel to North Korea in the second week of March, after the next board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), when North Korea, alongside Iran, will be a central issue.

The invitation to inspectors comes after North Korea agreed to suspend its nuclear activities with a view to ending its atomic weapons programme at the Six Party talks last week in Beijing.

The February 13 agreement set out a series of steps, which begin with North Korea shutting down and sealing its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, for Pyongyang and the international community to follow. Weapons inspections and talks with the US come next.

In return for an immediate freezing of uranium enrichment, the isolated regime has already been granted a shipment of fuel oil. More aid, in the form of fuel and food for North Korea's impoverished population, is expected to follow as Pyongyang begins to take apart its much-prized nuclear facilities: a deal that has angered some US conservatives.

The UN Secretary-General said that he believed Dr ElBaradei's trip would translate into concrete steps towards ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons. North Korea startled the world by testing its first atomic device in October last year.

“I’m convinced that his visit to Pyongyang will make a great contribution to implement the joint statement,” he said. “I hope that he and his delegation will be able to discuss with North Korean authorities... methods on first freezing nuclear facilities and including the eventual dismantlement of all nuclear weapons and facilities."

The IAEA will hope for a happier return to North Korea, which ordered weapons inspectors to leave the country in December 2002 when much of the world was distracted by the simultaneous inspections in Iraq.

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