Christopher Hill, the US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, said the declaration expected this week will only list nuclear materials and facilities.

"The weapons are to be determined at a subsequent phase. The declaration, at this point, the purpose of it, is to list all of the nuclear materials and all of nuclear facilities and programmes," Hill told reporters in Beijing.

"So with regard to weapons, that has always been the vision for the subsequent phase. ... The North Koreans have acknowledged that we have to deal with the weapons, but not in this phase -- not on phase two, but rather in a subsequent phase," Hill said.

The White House said Monday it expects the declaration to be handed over Thursday but cautioned that it would not be taken on trust. "It must be correct and verifiable," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Under a landmark deal struck in February 2007 between the two Koreas, the US, China, Russia, and Japan, the North agreed to disable its nuclear plants at Yongbyon and declare all nuclear programmes by the end of that year.

The secretive state, which tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006, has been disabling the plutonium-producing plants in return for energy aid but disputes over the declaration have stalled the process.

US suspicions of a secret uranium-enrichment weapons programme and of nuclear proliferation will now reportedly be addressed in a separate document.

The main declaration to China, which chairs six-party talks, will cover the production and stockpiling of plutonium at the ageing Yongbyon complex. The North will reportedly declare a 37-kilogram (81-pound) stockpile, less than US estimates.

Hill told reporters: "The key element of the declaration of course is the North Koreans, in addition to laying out all their facilities, have to give us a verifiable figure for how much plutonium they have."

Hill acknowledged the existence of a separate negotiation, but refrained from going into specifics.

"We are going to deal with it as soon as we sit down again to begin to map out the remaining piece of this negotiation," Hill said, referring to the atomic weapons.

He added that a verification agreement would have to be set up within 45 days of the declaration.

After the declaration, US President George W. Bush will inform Congress of plans to remove North Korea from a list of state sponsors of terrorism and refrain from penalising the regime under the US Trading with the Enemy Act.

In a symbolic gesture possibly on Friday, the North will blow up the cooling tower at Yongbyon in the presence of US and other TV crews.

Full six-party talks have not been held since last October but a new round is likely to be called soon after the declaration is submitted.

It will focus on verifying the declaration and on preparations for the third phase, the permanent dismantlement of nuclear plants and the handover of all weapons and material.

In return, the North would establish diplomatic relations with Washington and Japan and a peace treaty would be drawn up formally ending the Korean war five decades ago.

Tokyo has been critical of any US move to de-list North Korea until it accounts for all Japanese civilians believed kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s.

Japan called Tuesday for Washington to pressure North Korea over the issue.

The communist state, in a recent surprise development, pledged to reopen its investigation of the cases.

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